We Will Find a Way
by digi148
Summary: Chapter 22 updated! Mega x Netto fiction. Can the two overcome all the obstacles they're presented with?
1. Default Chapter

title: Net Nitro Necromancing Reference: based on the game series Megaman Battle Network .[owned by Capcom, not me].  
  
Summary: A boy named Netto receives a PET, which turns out to contain a NetNavi named Megaman. As their relationship grows, the two encounter obstacles and more. The WWW, a gang that commits crimes on the internet, are in hot pursuit of them after Megaman deleted several of their NetNavis. [Subject: Netto + Megaman]  
  
Terms: The hero/antihero is Netto Hikari, called Lan Hikari by nearly everyone he knows. His NetNavi is MegaMan. Netto's dad is not the creator of Megaman in this story.  
  
Chapter 1; the defective PET  
  
I was really poor with no money of my own to spend. All the kids would laugh at me because I didn't have all the high-tech items they had. I didn't want any of that stuff anyway. Don't get me wrong, my family was rich. My dad worked at Scilab inventing lots of stuff. That was where most of the high-tech stuff was invented. My parents didn't give me an allowance like the other families did with their kids. Anyway.  
  
I thought that I'd not wanted any high-tech stuff, but one day, something proved me wrong. I was in class at school when I saw some students take out some kind of handheld device. They were talking to it like it was a person, and to my surprise, the device spoke back and was carrying on a conversation!  
  
I couldn't help but be curious, so I took a peek at one of them. There was a computer screen on it, showing a web browser and a human-looking cyber navigator. Someone told me that the navigator was called a NetNavi that could do whatever you wanted it to do. It could talk to you wherever you went and it was like having a friend. I really wanted one, bad!  
  
After school, I ran to the shop where they told me I could get a PET, which the device was called. I saw many different ones for sale. But just my luck, a PET device sold for a whopping 76580 dollars!!! Meaning it was $100.00. That was way too much money for me. And I knew that I couldn't ask my parents for the money. I left the shop, sad and disheartened. The one thing that I wanted, and it was far out of my reach.  
  
I was about to go home when I saw another shop that sold PETS, and it was closing its doors! I ran to the manager who was closing up shop and he said nothing like he was really angry or something. He was mumbling something about his job with the WWW and then noticed me. He laughed about the question I asked him about the PETs he was selling, and he said that they were for free. My mouth dropped open at my luck! He slipped in under the gates and I heard several doors slam and shelves fall over, much like he was ripping the place apart. I was then handed a blue PET through the gates and the manager told me that it was defective. Then he slammed the door before I could say anything.  
  
I looked at the PET in my hands, and frowned at all the scratches and dents scattered all over it. It was all battered like it had been lying in the road getting constantly run over by cars. It looked broken. But I still had a small smile on my face, because I finally had my own PET like everyone else. It wasn't operational now, but I knew that the device was not beyond repair. I tucked my PET inside a pocket on my backpack and headed home. I was already halfway down the block anyway.  
  
I greeted my mom who was working in the kitchen when I got home, and told her about my adventures. I told her about the store with the 76580 dollar / $100.00 PETs. I said that I knew the person who gave me the PET, so as not to worry her or get yelled at for accepting things from strangers. She seemed to not believe me because PETs sold for a ton of money, but I showed her the device to prove it to her. She then told me to just throw it out because it was deemed defective. I said no, and went up to my room, sure that I could fix it.  
  
I shut the door and dumped the tools out of my box and onto the floor. A small can of scratch repair rub-on and a rubber hammer along with cotton balls. There were other tools too, including test answers and batteries, emergency non-perishable food including twinkies and chocolate bars, water bottles, a flashlight, and a water gun. I packed the tools that I didn't need back in the box and took the PET out of my bookbag.  
  
I grabbed the hammer and first lightly banged the dents out of the device, careful not to damage it any further. I then rubbed the scratch repair over the scratches, and used the cotton balls to wipe off the rest that I didn't use. The PET looked about as good as new. I still had to fix whatever 'defect' was in there, because it was not operational. The screen was blank, and I saw no on or off switch. I opened the back of the PET to see if something was wrong on the inside. There were a ton of computer chips in there of many different shapes and sizes. I noticed that one of the chips, a black one with a skull and crossbones, most certainly did not fit in. It looked like it was messing up the other chips, overloading the system and maybe causing it to malfunction. I took that chip out, and put it in my tool box if I needed it for later.  
  
Now everything looked like it belonged in there, so I closed the back of the PET and hoped that none of the chips or circuits had fried before I could fix it. A small beeping noise emitted from the device and I turned the PET over to look at the screen. I saw a light grey screen with an all blue Navi lying on the bottom as if it were dead. More trouble. I plugged it into my computer and went to Scilab's webpage. They had a diagnostic program that I could run, so I could find out what the problem was. I ran the program and was shocked to hear the results. The poor Navi had constantly been under attack by viruses, and the black chip that had been in there had been the cause of the massive damage. The viruses had put the Navi right on the brink of death.  
  
I put the Navi in the Scilab hospital overnight, and watched on the computer as other Navis that looked like nurses put it on a stretcher. The screen of the PET changed to white with a red cross in the center. I sat on my bed, planning to stay there and wait until the hospital told me any news on the Navi's condition. But mom called me down for dinner, and even though I wanted to stay, I knew that I was hungry and had to eat, having not eaten since 7'o clock that morning. I went downstairs and my mouth dropped open at my dad sitting at the table eating with us! It was on very rare occasions for him to be home like this, if even for a dinner. When I sat down, he told me that he had something important to tell me.  
  
= to be continued... next chapter. 


	2. chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own MegaMan, I only own the ooc-ness and plot. Notes: Sorry about posting all the chapters at once. There's still more to come though.  
  
Chapter 2; the NetCrime rise  
  
Mom dished out the steak and peas and dad passed around the mashed potatoes. I couldn't imagine what was so important that dad had come all the way from work to tell me about. I started cutting my meat and put some potatoes and peas in my mouth. I was halfway done eating dinner when I saw dad become serious.  
  
"Lan, I came here to tell you about the increase of Net Crime occurring in the world today." he said. I wondered what kind of Net Crime he was talking about, but I didn't ask him. "These are crimes committed by individuals using NetNavis as key weapons in their actions. There's an organization that has committed many NetCrimes known as the WWW. You know that there are many things connected to the internet, almost everything we use. The WWW seeks to destroy mankind."  
  
I took all this information in, what my dad was telling me about NetCrime. He went on, telling me what crimes they'd committed so far. I'd never heard of any of this, but dad said that they hadn't hit our town yet. He hoped that they would skip over us. Before dad went back to Scilab, he warned me not to get involved in any danger, like trying to stop the WWW. And what he said about them not coming to our town, I knew that they would come here soon. Why would they not come here? There was all the hype of PETs and online equipment. We had an oven that was online for maintenance reasons. The entire school's network would also be in danger. And what about the Scilab? Then dad would be in danger too. I couldn't stop them, because their crimes were Net-based and I had no NetNavi of my own. The PET I had now might not work, so I didn't count it in just yet.  
  
I got up from the table and went up to my room after finishing washing the dishes. I got my homework out of my bookbag and started on it. Math first, and then english. I finished the 10-page assignment on percent ratios and chucked the book back in the bag. I glanced at the clock and it was already 10:00 at night. I still had english to do though, and I had an empty page in my notebook on my lap to fill. The assignment was to write about anything. It could be about your friend, a memory, your pet dog, a current event. I looked up at the ceiling, and thought of cloudwatching for some reason. I decided to write about, um, I dunno, what shapes that most clouds took. I then closed the notebook with a sigh, but before I put it in back into my bag, I decided that I wasn't satisfied enough.  
  
I took my notebook back up and flipped to one of the pages in the middle, and started writing a poem. It was about how I hated not having any friends, how I hated myself because I couldn't make any. My mom opened the bedroom door to find me writing in my notebook. I wondered if she'd seen what I'd just written, and cursed myself silently. I didn't want anyone to find out that I wrote poetry. But she simply smiled and told me to finish up and go to bed. I let out an exhale of breath.  
  
How ashamed I would be if someone found one of my crummy poems. No one knew, and no one was going to know. I shut my notebook, put it in my bag, and changed into my pajamas. Climbing into bed, I looked at the PET on my desk plugged into my computer, and the red cross was still on the screen. I closed my eyes, and fell asleep. I dreamed about a knight in shining armor coming to rescue me. I was locked in a dark and lonely tower of a castle. 


	3. chapter 3

Chapter 3; Alarm Clock Indigo  
  
"Netto-kun. Netto-kun!" a voice called a sleeping boy's name. The sleeping form simply turned in bed, groaning. "WAKE UP HIKARI NETTO!!!" the voice yelled. A startled and fully awake Netto fell out of bed and onto the floor. He looked around the room, not seeing anyone that could have called his name. Especially -that- name. "Over here!" the voice guided him. Netto looked up in the direction of his desk. What he saw wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting to see.  
  
"Hi!" the cyber navigator in the PET said cheerfully, waving. "My name's MegaMan, your NetNavi!" Netto blinked his eyes, wiping them of sleep. "You have school in 20 minutes. I thought you'd want to get ready, so I woke you up." MegaMan said. "Oh, thanks." Netto said, groggily, still half-asleep. He was almost out the bedroom door when he stopped in his tracks and raced back in. "Wait, you're MY NetNavi?! For real?! You mean you actually pulled through?!" Netto said excitedly, looking at the blue-and-yellow clad navigator. The NetNavi blinked his vivid green eyes. "Yes, yes, and 100% recovery." MegaMan said, scratching his nose a little. "Lan you're going to be late for school!" Mom's voice yelled down from the kitchen. "Hurry up, Netto-kun!" MegaMan prompted him. Netto blushed red at the '-kun' his NetNavi attached to his name, but couldn't stop to say a comment back.  
  
He grabbed his clothes and raced to the bathroom, got in the shower, shampooed and washed and dried and changed in record time. Netto ran back to his room, put his shoes on and stuffed his backpack with anything he needed for school. He tied his bandana on after putting a comb through his brown hair, and dashed down the stairs only to dash right back up again. He grabbed his PET off the desk to take it with him. Mom saw him leave the house with a piece of toast in his mouth, his bookbag in one hand, and something else in his other that she couldn't get a good look at. She frowned at not having said goodbye to her son, but he had left in a hurried blur towards the school. She continued her daily housework. 


	4. chapter 4

Chapter 4; Serenade 1/3  
  
"Ack I'm going to be late for school again!" Netto said as he ran to school. He didn't even stop to say hi to his childhood friend Mayl, whom he walked with to school almost every morning. She called after him, but Netto was too caught up in an effort to make it to school on time. She huffed, and called him an idiot. Netto was almost through the park, the last stretch before school, when he decided to walk the rest of the way, having seen the clocktower on the school reading 8:25 am, 5 minutes left to get to school. He'd eaten his toast, and was ahead of everybody else. Why not talk to his Navi a bit while walking? He held up his PET and there MegaMan was, as if waiting for him to stop and listen to him, wanting to say something.  
  
"Thank you for saving my life, Netto-kun. I thought that you'd have left me to die, since I am a piece of worthless junk afterall..." MegaMan said. "What?? No you're not-" Netto began to say, but MegaMan shook his head. "It's true, I'm useless, a waste, the worst NetNavi ever, I'm no good to anyone. Nothing makes sense..." MegaMan continued. "Mega, stop talking like that. You're not any of that! You're my NetNavi and you're the best!" Netto said, but it seemed to be wasted words. "Why did you save me? I'll only cause you trouble in the long run..." MegaMan inquired. "Because... I..." Netto started, but couldn't get the words he wanted to say out of his mouth. "See? There was no-" "I needed a friend." MegaMan stopped his sentence dead at those words. Netto-kun... needed a friend? A friend?? F-R-I-E-N-D??? "You wanted to... find a friend... in me?" MegaMan stumbled over his words. But Netto couldn't answer him. He was in class, and couldn't talk to his NetNavi while the teacher was giving the lesson, or he'd be in trouble.  
  
MegaMan put his head down, and turned Netto's words over in his head. 'you're my netnavi, and you're the best' 'I needed a friend'. The words ran over and over within his mind. 'He wants to find a friend... in me...?' He thought. 'Why? Is he... like me?' His thoughts were interrupted by the teacher's voice yelling at Netto. "Lan Hikari, what in the world is this???" Netto looked up at the teacher, who was holding the page of his notebook up for the class to see. It was the poem he had written last night, about how he hated his life. The teacher shook her head as if disappointed in him, handed him the notebook, and ordered him out of class to go to the principal's office.  
  
MegaMan didn't know what was going on. Why was Netto getting in trouble, and what for? Was it because of him and the fact that he took him to school? From Netto's face, the guess was wrong. It was something with the notebook, and the teacher certainly didn't like it much at all. MegaMan took a look at the notebook in Netto's hand, and read what was on the open page that the teacher had pointed out. It was a poem.  
  
: This is your wake-up call  
your alarm clock is dead  
you had no idea  
all your friends are your enemies  
and they're after you  
there's no way to go  
no where to run  
This is the sum of all your fears  
You thought you could trust them  
you shared all your dirty little secrets  
and depended on them to be around  
they never told you lies or tall-tales  
always, forever, friends "the oath"  
fell apart, bit by bit, all of it, with one mistake  
Everyone hates you  
you're lost in your own turf  
when you move on,,,  
who will accept your goodbye  
but an empty soul like mine  
off to be filled again. :  
  
'This is how... Netto feels?' MegaMan gasped. 'He's like I am...' He turned to look up at Netto's face again. He could see the tears threatening to fall. MegaMan knew that he had to say something. The principal was going to yell at him, call his parents, tell everyone about the poem. It was obvious that Netto never meant to let anyone find out about it. "Netto-kun, don't go. Plug me in and I'll get you out of trouble." MegaMan spoke up. Netto looked down at him with a little bit of hope in his face, much to MegaMan's surprise. "You don't have to get in trouble, Netto-kun." MegaMan said, and Netto connected the PET into the phone in the school lobby and into the school network. MegaMan's figure appeared on the phone screen, and a maze was laid out in front of him.  
  
"It's your private work, and no one should do that like hold it up in front of everyone to see! I'm going to protect your work. You don't deserve any of that to happen to you. It's beyond me why you're getting in trouble... but that doesn't matter to me." MegaMan talked to Netto as he navigated his way to the center of the network. He found the database center, where he took Netto's file that the teacher had just put in. The principal would never know. MegaMan glanced at the other files in there too. He saw some of Netto's poems in there that had previously gotten him in trouble. "Shall I remove these too?" MegaMan asked Netto, who gratefully nodded. MegaMan grabbed all of those files, and left the school network to return to his happy owner.  
  
"Mega, I can't thank you enough." Netto said. MegaMan laughed. "I owe my life to you, Netto-kun. I'll be here for you whenever you need me to be. Besides, us in depression and despair should stick together." He said. Netto's smile wavered a little. What was his NetNavi depressed about anyway? Did he have to be like this? He already knew that each NetNavi had their own unique personality, but this was ridiculous. "Mega?" Netto said his name aloud. "Yeah, Netto-kun?" Came the answer. "Why do you feel like that?" There was a silence between them. After a while, MegaMan spoke. "I don't know, really... it's probably just the way I was programmed or something. The Battle Network System disapproved of me from the beginning and declared me defective, and stuff... All the other NetNavis were the same, while I wasn't. It's a long story." The NetNavi said. Netto frowned, upset.  
  
"That kind of stuff doesn't matter, Mega. You are who you are, and that's that. No one should judge you on anything, anyway. It's not fair." Netto said. "And besides, I've been victim to that kind of treatment too. Those kinds of people never add up to anything." He continued. MegaMan listened to him as he watched him walk out of school, and no one stopped him. "Netto- kun, are you leaving school?" MegaMan asked him out of curiousity. "Yes, I am. They're not going to stop me either." "Why don't you just go back in?" MegaMan said. Netto looked at him, almost out the school doors. "Why would I do that?" Netto questioned him. "Because, you're just running away now. Besides, you left your backpack there in the classroom and there's only an hour left of school." MegaMan convinced Netto to go back in to school.  
  
Netto re-entered the classroom and took his usual seat, and neither the students or the teacher looked up. Netto pretended to look very upset like he was in deep trouble, but for real he was really happy. Happy that he had a friend like MegaMan ready to help him out. 


	5. chapter 5

Chapter 5; DELETE!!!  
  
"So, Netto-kun, what do you want to do with the rest of the day?" MegaMan asked as Netto was walking out of school down the sidewalk. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... what do you want to do?" Netto asked him. MegaMan scratched his head, trying to think of something fun or interesting to do. He came up with one thing. "How about we, um, go internet surfing?" He offered. The idea sounded exciting for Netto. "Sounds great! Let's go have some fun." He said, and MegaMan smiled. This would be the first time that Netto would experience the net with his NetNavi guide and new best friend. Netto ran to his room and set up his computer, tossing his bookbag in the corner, wanting to forget about work until their fun was over. "Almost there, it'll be up in a second." Netto said as he waited for his computer to boot up.  
  
"I meant to ask you, do you have any more poems that you wrote?" MegaMan decided to start a conversation while they were waiting. Netto looked at him, with a little fear in his eyes. "You mean you saw that one in the notebook today in school? Oh yeah, you did..." Netto said. MegaMan guessed from his tone of voice that the poems were meant to be kept a secret, And not only from the teacher and those people in school, but from everyone including friends and family. "Do you mean to keep your writings a secret?" MegaMan asked. "I'd want to hide everything personal from my parents. It'd be embarrassing if they ever found out about my poems. They'd probably throw them all out." Netto said. He had a point. "And about telling my friends anything," Netto continued, "I don't have any friends." Megaman nodded. It was time to change the subject. "And what about me? You haven't talked to anyone about me or shown me to your parents yet." Megaman asked. "My parents wouldn't be too thrilled if they found out about you either. But then again, they probably wouldn't care." Netto said. MegaMan sighed. "You don't know that, Netto-kun. Maybe they'd be happy to meet me." He said.  
  
Netto looked at his NetNavi on the computer screen, browsing the net for someplace fun to go to. "And you do have at least one friend, you've got me. That's what I'm here for, unless you want me here for more than that." MegaMan said, and opened the page to the Scilab Square, which was where a lot of NetNavis hung out. Netto wondered where he was taking him, but wanted to wait to be surprised. "I thought you'd want to visit your dad here, this is where he works, right?" MegaMan said. Netto's smile widened. "Yeah! How'd you know I wanted to see him?" He said excitedly. He wanted to see his dad and tell him about his NetNavi. "I just knew, I guess... you don't see him a lot, do you?" MegaMan asked. Netto shook his head no. "He's always stuck at work... it'd be nice to see him, but I guess it's okay this way too." Netto said as his NetNavi browsed the offices on the internet. He couldn't find him too easily, but eventually he found his desk and the caretaker program. They found out he was in a meeting, and wouldn't be coming back for at least 6 hours! "He's got a really busy job, doesn't he?" MegaMan laughed softly. He looked at Netto and saw that he looked unhappy. "I know, how about we leave a message for him saying that we were here?" He suggested. Netto's smile took back its place on his face. " 'Dear dad, we came to see you today but you were busy! Love Lan' is that message okay?" MegaMan showed him the message he had written. Netto nodded, and his NetNavi gave the caretaker program the message. It said it would deliver it to him as soon as he came into the office.  
  
MegaMan left the office and was about to ask Netto what he wanted to do now that this task was over, but his attention was grabbed by the sound of startled and frightened NetNavis in the Scilab lobby. Netto followed MegaMan as his NetNavi peeked from where he was hidden behind the doorway of the elevator, so he wouldn't be seen but would be able to see what was going on. A light blue NetNavi that was dressed like an eskimo was blowing ice out of his mouth, freezing everything and everyone that got hit with his icy breath.  
  
"Mega, what's going on?" MegaMan heard Netto asking him in a whisper, not wanting the other NetNavi to hear. "It's one of the WWW's NetNavis, a takeover of the Scilab. It's a Navi named IceMan." MegaMan answered back softly. Netto was shocked, having heard his father talk about them just the day before. "Something's not right, though. Oh, Iceman's operator is being made to do this to get his son back, who is being held captive by the WWW!" MegaMan realized. Netto held his breath. World Three didn't even hold back on holding children hostage! He was angry, and wasn't about to let what his dad told him hold him back from fighting World Three.  
  
IceMan was headed MegaMan's way, and there was no way for him to run anywhere and not be seen. "MegaMan, we have to stop them." Netto said to his NetNavi, who looked at him and into his brave face. "It's the right thing to do, Netto-kun!" He said, and lunged at IceMan, alerting his operator Dr. Froid in the process. Netto ran out of the house, on the trail of Dr. Froid's lost son. He had to hurry, he felt very insecure and worried without being with MegaMan on the computer. What if he got frozen like the other Scilab NetNavis? What did World Three want with the Scilab?  
  
He ran down the sidewalk to the store he had gotten his PET at, and saw a parked car right next to it, half hidden by bushes. It looked too suspicious to be just someone's car parked illegally. Netto opened the door, and out tumbled a young boy from the 4th grader class in his school, Dr. Froid's son. "Please stop my dad! Tell him I'm okay!" He gave Netto a message saying he was okay and Netto ran back home and back up to his computer to tell MegaMan the good news.  
  
He stopped in his tracks when he saw what had been going on while he had been gone. MegaMan's feet were frozen to the floor and he was being assualted by IceMan, kicking up iceballs that he was making and throwing the hard pieces at him. MegaMan couldn't fight back because he couldn't move to attack. "Mega!!!!" Netto cried out, grabbing hold of the controls again. In doing so, the ice around MegaMan's feet melted, and Iceman was thrown back with shock that he had gotten free so easily from the ice. The other NetNavis he had frozen were still stuck in place, no matter what their operators or themselves were doing. That was what IceMan's job had been, to get everyone trapped so he could bring the Aquaprogram to World Three. Only then would they let his operator's son go.  
  
"MegaMan!" Netto said. MegaMan nodded, and weakened IceMan enough to stop him but not enough to kill him. "Your son is alright. Please stop doing this." MegaMan said to IceMan, and gave him the message that Netto had transferred to him. IceMan immediately informed his operator of the news and he stopped the destruction that he was causing. IceMan took back all the ice that was trapping the NetNavis, and apologized for his actions. Father was reunited with son, and everything was alright.  
  
MegaMan returned to Netto, who told his NetNavi that he was going to put a stop to World Three. "I don't want that to happen again. I want to stop them from trying to take over the world, or whatever they're doing." Netto said. MegaMan agreed with him. "I'll be right there beside you, Netto-kun!" MegaMan smiled, holding up a fist towards the sky as he was walking down the Cyber Square's internet sidewalk tracking down something fun again. "As will I, Mega." Netto whispered so that his NetNavi wouldn't hear him.  
  
somewhere else, in a dark lab located in the mountains, a mad scientist plots his next move : A meddling kid and his Navi dares to tangle with the WWW?! DELETE!!! 


	6. chapter 6

[Notes: Beware of the suicidal part. Suicide is not a release, peoples.]  
  
Chapter 6; Knowing  
  
= Netto-kun was in Dencity when it happened. It was World Three again, another attempt at taking over a city. They almost came close, you know. If I hadn't screwed up, everything would have been fine. Nothing would have gone wrong, no one would have gotten hurt. Instead, I made a wrong decision, and I could have cost thousands of lives. Including the person I cared about most. It feels like he died, because of me. =  
  
Netto ran to the Metroline to take the train down to Dencity, where his NetNavi MegaMan was already fighting off the WWW's attacks. Grabbing his ticket, Netto caught the train headed to the destination. He kept a close eye on his PET in his hands, following MegaMan's every move. There were dozens, no, hundreds of viruses attacking the city, and surrounding him. He was blasting them away as much as he could. "I have to stop whoever is operating the Navi responsible for this..." Netto muttered to himself. ''Dencity, Dencity, arrived'' the train announcement rang throughout the metro car. Netto dashed out as soon as the doors opened.  
  
As soon as he got out of the Metroline, there was a car crash right on the road in front of him! He looked at the traffic lights, and they were all messed up, changing from green to red and red to green, and the cars couldn't stop! Netto looked down at the PET's screen just as MegaMan got blasted by a NetNavi that looked like a clown. MegaMan could only hold on for so long... Netto ran to find who was causing all of this.  
  
He crossed many streets and ran down along many blocks, and finally found a large crowd of angry and panicked people huddled in a corner as if surrounding somebody. As Netto drew closer, he could hear some of what they were saying. "If I buy this program, my car will be accident-free! And it's cheap too, only 100,000,000 dollars!" One of the men said. "Stop! It's all a trick played by the WWW to get your money!" Netto announced so all the people could hear him. All the people looked up, and realized that it was indeed a cheap trick. "Thanks, kid!" A woman said to him as the crowd dispersed.  
  
An angry looking girl with pigtails remained, growling at him. "You dare foil in my plans?!" She said angrilly, staring down at Netto. She then pushed him into the road, and Netto was sent sprawling right in the middle of the intersection, the traffic lights going haywire.  
  
Meanwhile, in the net, MegaMan was finished with the clown Navi named Colorman, and was staring puzzled and confused at the device before him. It had two levers, one green, and one red. These levers controlled the traffic lights. But which one should he pull down, and which one should he leave up? Something caused him to look at the screen that showed him what was happening on Netto's side, and he saw Netto was right in the middle of the road with two cars coming right his way! "Netto-kun!!!!" Panicking, MegaMan pulled down the green lever in a blur. He didn't mean to do that, but couldn't change it until 5 seconds later! "Netto-kun!!" MegaMan cried out.  
  
Netto was scared out of his mind at the two cars speeding head on towards him, headed straight for him! The lights changed suddenly, and the cars stopped, but not before hitting Netto, giving him a nasty gash across his chest and a twisted ankle from scrambling out of the way at the last possible second.  
  
MegaMan lay on the ground in the cyber-world, trembling, his hand still clutching the red lever on the device. "Netto-kun... I screwed up... he's... dead..." MegaMan muttered softly. A single teardrop fell at his knees.  
  
Netto forced himself to sit up on the sidewalk, clutching his chest, some blood coming down out of the rip in his clothes. But he was alive. If the lights hadn't changed, he might have been... MegaMan had saved him! He must have been stopped by the clown NetNavi, and needed time to get the lights back working. Holding up the PET in his hands, he said MegaMan's name. "Mega!" He said.  
  
MegaMan's head shot up, his eyes immediately going to the screen. When he saw Netto's face, he was both relieved and confused. "Netto-kun! You're alive!?" He said. Netto nodded in answer. "All thanks to you!! I thought I was going to die! That clown Navi really must have given you a hard time!" Netto said, calming himself down from the trauma he'd just gone through. MegaMan stood up, and nodded his head slowly. 'Netto-kun doesn't think I screwed up... I should tell him the truth, but... it seems okay this way too...' MegaMan thought in his mind. Netto nodded. "I'm hurt, but I can make it home in one piece." Netto said, catching MegaMan's immediate attention. "Mom's going to be a nervous wreck..." He muttered as he got up off the sidewalk, forcing himself up onto his ankle. It really hurt to walk, putting strain on the twisted ankle.  
  
"Netto-kun, I'm sorry... you got hurt because of me..." MegaMan started saying. "I could have gotten you killed because I screwed up!!" He cried. He hung his head in shame, and guilt. Netto blinked his eyes, already down two blocks on his way to the Metroline. "I panicked and pulled the wrong lever! I screwed up!!" He continued to say. Netto understood, a small smile on his face to make sure MegaMan knew that. "It's OK. It was just a little mistake, Mega. You saved me actually, you pulled the right lever a little late, but that's okay. I'm still breathing, right?" Netto laughed, trying to cheer his NetNavi up a bit. MegaMan looked up at him, and slowly nodded his head. There was a lot of guilt still within him, but he tried to ignore it for now.  
  
- - - -  
  
After school the next day, everything was normal as if nothing had happened. None of the teachers had talked about what had happened in Dencity, but some students talked about it amongst themselves. Netto was catching up to his old childhood friend Mayl, to ask her out to the movies that night, since it was Friday. "Hey Mayl? Do you... want to go to see a movie with me tonight?" Netto asked her. Mayl looked at him with an especially mean look on her face. "I'd NEVER go out with you, of all people, Lan." And she walked away, leaving Netto completely stunned. Those words hurt deeply. MegaMan had also been stunned by her words, he hadn't been expecting them either. She'd put him down so brutally, completely crushing him... as if for no reason at all. 'What did Netto-kun ever do to her?' MegaMan huffed, and looked up at his operator. He had a dark look on his face, and looked incredibly sad and depressed. MegaMan couldn't think of anything helpful to say. 'Poor Netto-kun... it took him a while to gather up the courage to ask her, and now this happens... and now I don't know what to say...' MegaMan thought to himself.  
  
When Netto arrived home, he barely ate his dinner. His mom was worried but he lied and told her that he ate a big lunch at school. He then went up to his room and tried to get through his nightly homework assignment. "Lan, I'm going out with the neighbors, bye sweety!" Mom yelled up the stairs. "OK." Netto replied. He heard the front door shutting and sighed. He said nothing after a while.  
  
"Mega, I can't take it anymore." MegaMan barely heard the soft mutter. Before he could say anything in reply, Netto got up abruptly from his desk chair and ran out the door, letting the bedroom door slam behind him. "Netto-kun!!" MegaMan called after him, but was unsuccessful in getting Netto back or getting an explanation from him about where he was going. He knew something was wrong when he heard the front door slam, and Netto hadn't taken him with him like always. He had a -very- bad feeling that Netto was going to do something bad. To himself.  
  
Netto ran where his feet led him. He clutched his heart, it hurt so much, Mayl's words were cutting into him like daggers and swords. The whole scene was repeating in his mind, like a broken record. 'I'd NEVER go out with you, of all people, Lan.' And that mean look she gave him... combined with the loneliness and depression within himself, it was all too much. No one liked him, no one paid attention to him, his parents couldn't understand him... What else was there to live for? He had nobody...  
  
Running as tears blinded him, he found himself in a park near a high bridge. Without thinking he got up on the ledge of the bridge, and wiped the stinging tears from his eyes. And then, he jumped, falling down into the water underneath the bridge. He let himself just stay under the water, letting his air supply dwindle. It really wasn't worth living anymore...  
  
Everything was getting dark, and the water surrounding him and smothering him was all fuzzy dark blue. He thought he was in a dream when he heard a splash like something entering the water, and then someone swimming towards him. Netto smiled faintly, in a dream, not comprehending much in the state he was in without much air. The person took his hand and lifted him to the surface, where they resurfaced and Netto was put on the grassy riverbank, coughing the water out of his lungs harshly. When his vision cleared a little, he saw the knight in shining armor from his dreams. He then lost consciousness, his drenched and weak body falling limply into the knight's arms. ................................................... 


	7. chapter 7

Chapter 7; Guilt Trip  
  
Netto woke up in his bed under the covers, in his pajamas. He thought it had been just a dream, because he'd been saved by the shining armor knight from the river under the bridge. That he'd simply dreamed it, and he'd been in bed asleep the whole time. But taking a glance at the floor, he saw the clothes he'd been wearing yesterday in a sopping wet heap. He'd jumped in the river alright, but how could a figment of his imagination save him?  
  
Netto jumped nearly ten feet out of his bed when he heard someone snoring softly right next to him. Looking towards his right on the other side of the bed, he saw MegaMan sleeping on his bed with him! Netto blinked his eyes, but he wasn't dreaming. MegaMan must have been the knight in shining armor... because MegaMan was drenched too. If this was so, how was he here in the real world with him? He was a NetNavi that couldn't live outside the internet or the PET...  
  
"Mega?" Netto put his hand lightly on MegaMan's shoulder. He was real, it wasn't a dream. MegaMan stirred out of sleep, and opened his eyes. When he saw Netto, he gave a warm smile. "Netto-kun..." He yawned, stretching his arms and legs.  
  
"DON'T EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!!!!!" MegaMan shook Netto silly by his shoulders. "Ack OK OK I'm sorry!!" Netto said so MegaMan would stop shaking him. He fell on the floor, dizzy. MegaMan sat down on the bed, and looked angrilly at him. "I'm not going to leave you alone until you tell me why you did what you did last night. Or what you tried to do." Netto looked down at the floor, depressed, and feeling guilty too. How could he forget about MegaMan? He was his best friend... he'd have helped him through it. "I let my emotions take control of me... I couldn't get them out." Netto stated. "And that's my fault, because I wasn't helping you through anything." MegaMan said of himself, hanging his head even lower than Netto's. "Mayl can go to Hell, Netto-kun, but don't let her bring you down with her." MegaMan said, startling Netto at his choice of words.  
  
Netto thought about it. Mayl really wasn't worth dying over. Just, all the emotions drove him over the edge. He wanted to die. But now that the emotion overload was over, he didn't want to die at all. It was all because Mayl pushed him over the edge. "You're right, Mega. I was stupid..." Netto confessed. MegaMan nodded. "I don't even know why you would even think about taking that sort of action. You have a lot to live for, you have a person who cares for you, you've got this whole world." MegaMan said. Netto frowned sadly. "I don't have anyone who cares about me, Mega, my parents aren't around much and everyone I know either wants to get me in trouble or use me for their own benefit." Netto said. "And if you'd died, there'd be no one left who'd miss you, right?" MegaMan questioned. Netto nodded his head.  
  
MegaMan put a hand on Netto's shoulder. "Netto-kun, listen to me. Taking your own life is a bad idea, why didn't you take me too? I probably couldn't live without you anyway." MegaMan said. Netto was stunned by his words. Really? "Never mind that. You're going to be late for school if you don't go now, you know." MegaMan pointed to the clock hanging on the wall. It was 8 AM and class started at 8:30. Netto nodded his head and put clean clothes on. He went to the bathroom the brush his teeth and when he got back he saw that MegaMan was in his PET now, waiting for him.  
  
Netto tied his bandana on, which was still wet by the way, and took MegaMan with him this time. He ran down the stairs with his backpack and books, and grabbed the usual piece of toast and ran out the door on his way to school. Now it was 8:12, with a good chunk of time to spare. Netto thought to himself as he walked down the sidewalk towards school. Mega... really felt that way? He actually said that? What the heck? He had no idea that NetNavis could get so attached to their operators... did all Navis act this way? And he'd never heard of a NetNavi coming alive out of their PETs, let alone save their operator from jumping into a river or something. But he didn't know all that there was to know about NetNavis. "Netto-kun...? What are you thinking about?" A voice stirred him out of his thoughts. "I was thinking about you." Netto said. "Oh. I was thinking about you, too." Came his answer. Before the two of them could share what they'd been thinking about, someone called his name.  
  
"Lan!!" Netto turned around and saw his two classmates running up to him, Dex and Yai. Dex was the school bully, but was nice to Lan only because he was a fellow classmate. Yai was the rich girl of the town, and was also a friend of Lan's. But they weren't the kind of friends that a guy would want. "Yo, what's the deal? We saw you with a strange guy in the park late last night." Dex said. "What are you holding back from us? Huh? Huh? We told you not to hide any secrets from us!" Yai said. Netto tried to ignore them but it was impossible with Yai's annoying voice grating on his nerves. They only wanted to know so they could spread gossip. "If you won't tell us, we won't be your friends anymore." Dex announced.  
  
Netto looked at them, a bit scared because he knew that they were telling the truth. They would do that to him, just sever their 'friendship' with him. But did Netto really care? If he lost these two, then he wouldn't have any friends left... "I'm not going to tell you anything!" Netto screamed at them. "Just go away and leave me alone." Both Yai and Dex looked at him. "If that's what you want. But believe me, you're going to be left all alone for yelling at us like that!" Yai said, and stormed off towards school. Dex followed her after giving Netto a look. After they were gone, Netto exhaled a deep breath. MegaMan looked out from his PET. It happened again... What was going on? Netto was losing his friends... was it because of him?  
  
"I thought she'd deserve to be yelled at like that. But I guess I got what I deserved too..." Netto said to MegaMan. When MegaMan saw Netto's sad face, he felt what he was going through too. "I knew that someday they would do this. I couldn't let them know who exactly had saved me, because they'd tell the whole school and everyone would be all over us... I couldn't just let that happen. Besides, I meant to keep you a secret! Right? So that's what I'm going to do." Netto said, his voice wavering like he was about to lose it to a bout of tears. "That's right, Netto-kun. But cheer up! Surely that's not all the friends you have." MegaMan said. When Netto didn't answer him, he knew that he was wrong. "You've... got no more friends?" Netto nodded his head sadly. And MegaMan didn't know what to say.  
  
When Netto walked into class, everyone turned away from him, ignoring him as if he were the plague. Yai and Dex had gotten there, and must have told the rest of the class students something about him. Just what it had been was beyond his imagination, but the feelings he felt made him feel all the more unwanted. He tried to ignore it though. He wished that MegaMan would say something, but he hadn't said a thing since he'd asked if he'd had any friends left. He obviously didn't... So instead of dwelling on the problem that today brought, he focused on his classwork.  
  
When he took his notebook out of his backpack along with his math binder, he reminded himself that he hadn't done his homework from last night! So not only was he being ignored by the entire class, but he was also in trouble for not doing his homework. But when he opened the notebook, he saw that the homework had been done. Also, there was a note behind the homework: Just so you won't get in trouble in class tomorrow! -MegaMan . Netto's entire face lit up. Sitting down in his seat, the class commenced.  
  
While Netto was taking class, MegaMan was taking a 'class' of his own, searching through the upcoming report cards for the classmates of Netto. He snickered to himself as he pulled out the report cards of Dex and Yai. They would pay dearly for what they had done to Netto. He changed the A's on Yai's card to F-'s. And Dex's was pretty bad already, mostly C's, but he changed them to F-'s too. Under teacher comments he put 'not nice to classmates'. He put them back in order and left without being spotted. He did feel guilty after, but distracted himself by going virus-busting in the school network. Just a few Metaur viruses and Fishys and Quakes... nothing too major.  
  
He stayed away from the principal's section because he might get caught by somebody. No one knew who his operator was, so why did he care anyway? It felt great to be so treasured by somebody and to be kept a secret. He could do so much! But... he knew that it wouldn't last forever. The WWW already knew about them, for instance. "Speaking of the WWW... I wonder what big plot they have planned for next time?" He wondered as he gunned down some stray Metaurs. 'Whatever it is, Netto-kun and I will be ready for them!' He thought as he plowed through some viruses that had lined up in front of him, getting ready to strike. "I wonder if they're tracking us down right now..." He continued to think to himself. He wished that he hadn't said that, because the whole school network rumbled, throwing everything out of order! All the programs got behind him in a panic, and MegaMan didn't know why they hid behind him. But he saw someone advancing towards him, and immediately stood his ground.  
  
It was a WWW NetNavi, and it meant business. Well, it looked like it did, but MegaMan wasn't about to ask. It looked like a guy with a big brain and who was quite tall and thin. "If you've come for MegaMan, that's me. Now just get it over with and leave everyone else here alone!" MegaMan said, standing up for all the little programs crouched behind him. They all looked up at him as if he was their courageous savior, or something like that.  
  
"I've come to DELETE you, MegaMan, whoever happens to get in my way is not my problem." The NetNavi said. MegaMan growled at what it had just said. "Well then I'll DELETE you before then, WWW NetNavi!" MegaMan said, and starting charging his buster cannon. "It's NumberMan. Let the battle commence." MegaMan shot off his charged shot and it hit NumberMan square in the chest. It threw two dice, which rolled on the floor. There were two sixes. MegaMan was engulfed in a giant explosion. "The power of the explosion depends on the dice." NumberMan said matter-of-factly. MegaMan burst out of the smoky cloud coughing, with a ready-charged shot up his sleeve. He let it go, and it hit NumberMan head-on. "For a WWW NetNavi, you sure are a weakling. I don't even have my operator with me, and look. Barely a scratch." MegaMan laughed as he blew NumberMan skyhigh, sending it offline and back into its PET. All the little programs cheered for him, thanking him for getting rid of the WWW Navi. MegaMan restored the school network, and returned to his PET just in time for school to end.  
  
Netto looked really happy as he raced out of the classroom. Yai was sobbing her eyes out as if she'd lost someone dear to her and Dex was a bit shaken up. Netto was way ahead of everybody for a reason. He didn't want them to say anything to him or treat him like he was a terrible person. Actually, he wasn't even thinking about that anymore. He was so happy that he had a friend like MegaMan, he couldn't care about anyone else. The sun was shining, the kids were playing in the playground, and the town was alive. How could anyone be sad? Well, except for Yai and Dex, but Netto was happy about that too!  
  
"Thanks Mega! Oh man what happened to you?" Netto said as he looked down at the PET in his hands. MegaMan was all dirty and battered by NumberMan's explosion. "A WWW NetNavi attacked the school's network. But he was no match for me!" MegaMan said proudly. Netto laughed along with his NetNavi. "They're really annoying, aren't they?" MegaMan agreed with him all the way. "I was virus-busting earlier too. It's boring when you're in class! I had to find something to do." MegaMan said. Netto nodded his head.  
  
"They have classes for NetNavis too, you know. Lessee, there's virus- busting class where you learn techniques, and I don't know any others." Netto said. MegaMan laughed. "Hah, I could teach the class some new techniques!" Netto laughed. "True, very true." MegaMan smiled at his operator's better personality. "I'm glad you're so happy, Netto-kun." MegaMan said. Netto gave him a thankful smile. "It's all thanks to you, Mega! Thanks a lot!" Netto smiled brightly down at him. MegaMan smiled back. "Thanks for being there for me in bed last night. And for bringing me to my senses. I can't thank you enough, Mega." Netto continued. MegaMan hid the blush that was creeping onto his face. "Geez, you're making me blush, Netto-kun!!" MegaMan cried out. Netto laughed immensely. "But anyway, you don't have to thank me." And the two friends went home.  
  
-At the WWW's base, the truth has been discovered!- : "Ah I finally found what we had been looking for all along! The plans for Project ANNIHILATE THE WORLD!!!!!! But where is the device that the plans are for???" = "What are you babbling about now?" : "Where is the PET you bungling buffoon. I know you had it with you and your sticky fingers." = "Oh you mean that piece of junk? I thought it wasn't working and took it to the PET shop." : "You did WHAT?! Oh man, the old man is going to have your head if you don't get it back." / "'Old man'? You two had better get it back, if you value your lives!" ( a horrified scream can be heard in the distance ) = "Yessir! I mean Ma'am! I mean Sir! I mean-" / "Go to it you idiots!!" : "Yessir!" 


	8. chapter 8

Chapter 8; WWW's Mind Control! DELETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!argh  
  
MegaMan watched from his viewpoint on the top level of the net as some NetNavis and viruses scoured the UnderNet. He had a serious look on his face, as if he knew that they were up to something. He moved on quickly, not wanting to stay in one place for too long. Those NetNavis looked like they meant business, even from way up where he was.  
  
: The PET could not be found, but we do have a lock on the NetNavi somewhere in the net. It might be because the PET is already owned by somebody. What shall we do, Master? / Capture the NetNavi. We can activate the device from there. : Roger that. Moving out! DELETE!!!  
  
MegaMan saw Colorman and 3 other NetNavis coming up closer to where he was. He fled down the sidewalk of the net, flying past other programs and Navis that looked at his rapidly moving figure moving like a blur behind them. He had to get out of there, and fast. But he didn't know where to go. Taking a wrong turn led him to a dead end. Before he could take another direction, the World Three NetNavis were almost on top of him, and he was in their sights. He tried attacking them with everything he had, which wasn't much at all. But they all ganged up on him all at once, and they grabbed him and he couldn't struggle free. He felt a painful numbing sensation flow through his body, and he blacked out. With his loss of consciousness came a flashback of three days earlier.  
  
~ MegaMan was in Netto's room, watching his operator do his homework. Netto was having a conversation with him about friendship and what he thought it was when his mom came in after hearing voices coming from his room. She caught him talking with his NetNavi, whom she hadn't met or even known about. She yelled at Netto for having kept the PET after she'd told him to throw it out. Netto, still being depressed from the events earlier that week, grew even more miserable. MegaMan now had proof that he was causing Netto to get into trouble and just causing him to lose friends. In order to save Netto from being in even more trouble, he decided to leave. He ran away deep inside the net, planning to stay there and forget about Netto. It was impossible. He occassionally found himself hanging around Netto's PC homepage, but his will kept him from going in. He didn't want Netto to be in any more trouble, but he also missed his operator dearly. ~  
  
/ I'd like to say 'good job', but you screwed up. The NetNavi was supposed to be with its operator you dolts. : But sir, the PET does not have the required black chip we'd planted in it. We couldn't control the NetNavi with the PET even if we did have it in our hands. / Ah, then I won't say good job anyway since I'm not a nice guy. Throw the NetNavi required in one of the test tubes in the lab. I will get to work on it right away. Mwahahahaha. = I wonder what the old man's going to do with that NetNavi to get it to cooperate with us. : I'm sure that neither one of us want to know...  
  
-Several days-or maybe just hours- later- '' Project ANNIHILATE THE WORLD was put into action by the WWW. They have unleashed a super-powered, ultimate NetNavi upon the internet networks and it is destroying everything in its path, be it programs, other Navis, and entire databases of information. So far, the Official NetBattlers have not even gotten close to make an attempt to contain it. WWW must be stopped, at all costs. '' Netto shut off the tv with the remote control. He was sick of just sitting around, watching WWW commit crimes without being able to do anything. It was his fault that his NetNavi and best friend was gone. If he was here with him, by his side, they'd be fighting that ultimate NetNavi right now. But MegaMan... wasn't here. He was somewhere in the internet and Netto had no idea where.  
  
His mom burst into the living room and grabbed the remote up off the table, and turned the tv on. "I'm going to miss my favorite cooking show!" She exclaimed. Just as she changed the channel, Netto caught a glimpse of the news channel he'd been on earlier. There was an image of a blue and yellow NetNavi laying waste to some Official NetBattler Navis. A very familiar blue and yellow NetNavi. Speeding past his mom, he ran up to his room immediately, racking his brain to figure out what he was going to do. He hoped that what he'd just caught a glimpse of hadn't been the Navi in mind.  
  
He quickly booted up his computer and was on the internet in seconds. He went to the city database, and Dencity and Yoka were down, their databases destroyed. He had to find where the battle was going on right at that second. Where could he look next? While he was deciding where he should look next, he searched his mind for answers too. Why would Mega attack the Official NetBattler's Navis? Then something clicked in his mind, as if MegaMan himself was telling him the answers. Mind control.  
  
Dr. Wily, the leader of WWW, watched as the ultimate tool of destruction lay waste to anything he commanded it to destroy. Dencity and Yoka cities were at his mercy. Project ANNIHILATE THE WORLD was becoming very successful. He watched as the NetNavi he'd brainwashed destroyed NetNavi after NetNavi in its path. The only problem was that he'd had to use mind control to get the Navi under his absolute control. No matter. The plans were going as he wished, and it was only a matter of time before nobody stood in his way.  
  
The mad scientist's evil grin vanished, and in its place appeared an expression of slight fear. His hold on the NetNavi was slipping rapidly. He watched as the Navi on screen grew more violent in its actions and it started doing things as it wished instead of carrying out his wishes. The NetNavi was breaking out of his control. Dr. Wily shrank back from the screen when he saw the Navi's face; the expression was simply terrifying. It was like the face of a crazed, out-of-control and dangerous lunatic. "Abort the project! Abort! Abort!" The scientist screamed. The NetNavi aimed his blaster at the screen. And then there was static.  
  
| The amount of destruction was incredibly massive. There were internet cities burning to ashes and entire databases were crumbling to dust. NetNavis were vanishing off the internet in the blink of an eye and a blast of a cannon. A blur ran across the screen and took its place atop a crumbled building that was now rubble. The ultimate NetNavi stood overlooking the area it had just trashed, laughing maniacally. The flames crackled and shimmered, outlining the figure of this bringer of destruction. A blue-and-yellow helmet covered his black hair, a few strands sticking out of the back. He wore blue armor and yellow armor took its place on his shoulders. There was a hand on his left arm, but a blaster cannon was on the right. His red eyes burned with anger and an expression of immense pain was on his face. He blasted a shot at the only building left standing, and was off in a flash, disappearing in a blur of speed. Two brown eyes tore themselves away from the screen, filled with tears. Those two eyes belonged to the NetNavi's operator, who was forcing himself to watch his NetNavi go berserk, obliterating all that they had protected once before. |  
  
Netto tried telling himself that it was only mind control, but he knew it had gone much farther than just that. MegaMan was berserk and was under no one's control anymore, annihilating anything and everything in existence. He could feel the pain his Navi was going through, mentally and emotionally. MegaMan had no control over anything. How WWW had gotten ahold of the run away NetNavi was beyond him, but they had, and they were the ones responsible.  
  
Netto clenched his fist in anger, his PET he clutched close to his heart in the other hand. If only he could stop Mega from doing any more damage. The pain he must be going through too; the good MegaMan was still in there, watching himself do such wrong and horrible things. Netto banged his fist on the desk table, hitting his cd player in the process. To his confusion the music turned on, and was playing on the internet for all present to hear. It was his favorite song, the song he had written and made together with MegaMan. It was called 'Fake Wings'. He was shocked when the berserk NetNavi stopped dead in his tracks at the sound.  
  
: shine, bright morning light  
now in the air, the spring is coming  
sweet blowing wind  
singing down the hills and valleys  
keep your eyes on me  
now we're on the edge of Hell  
dear my love, sweet morning light  
wait for me, you've gone much farther  
too far :  
  
The NetNavi clutched his head in pain. "NETTO-KUN!!!!!" He screamed before falling to the floor on his knees. The memory was making something within the berserk Navi fight its way back. "Mega!!!" Netto cried, thinking that his Navi on the screen couldn't hear him. But MegaMan heard, loud and clear. Two faded green eyes looked around the area as if searching for someone, but like a blind man, he couldn't see anything at all. Netto could only watch as his best friend struggled in an internal battle. "Don't give up Mega!!! Fight it!!!"  
  
Mega heard, but couldn't see. He was fighting a major war, against himself. Netto was there and needed him, and to his astonishment was suffering like he was. He could see the demon within him, staring at him with its piercing, angry red eyes, its hands covered in blood. And it was hungry for more. MegaMan screamed once more, and something caused him to teleport out of that area, leaving Netto incredibly worried. He too had seen the demon within. He searched and searched the internet, looking for his NetNavi. He searched for what might be hours. But he was nowhere to be found. Netto could only stare at the ruins and flames that scattered the net. He couldn't find MegaMan, who was suffering greatly. He couldn't find him, no matter how hard he looked or where he looked. He was nowhere.  
  
MegaMan stumbled, trying to get away from the WWW NetNavis who were shooting rounds at him, trying to take him down. Worn out and wounded, physically and emotionally exhausted, he could barely move. Two dice landed in front of him where they had landed. And with an explosion, MegaMan collapsed onto the ground, too weak to move or run away anymore. When the smoke cleared, the WWW NetNavis moved to grab the NetNavi that they had been sent after. But there was nothing there but bare ground. All four NetNavis looked around confusedly, wondering where the Navi went to. When they couldn't find him, they blamed it on NumberMan for killing the NetNavi with the too-powerful explosion.  
  
Netto lifted his head off his desk and stood up when a light became present from his PET. A limp body crashed into him, scaring him out of his mind. It felt frozen, cold, and bloody. He cringed at the touch, but managed to get it off him. To his horror, it was his NetNavi, MegaMan. Half-frozen, and horribly injured. Motionless. He swallowed the scream that he was about to utter, and set his friend upon the bed. The light blue sheets immediately stained red. MegaMan was bleeding, and heavily. "Mega...." Netto threw himself onto him, crying onto his chest. To his surprise, it rose and then fell with a shudder, hand twitching once. Clinging to the life that was escaping him.  
  
Netto quickly put him full on the bed, where he had previously hung half off the bed. He tore his favorite shirt into strips, and used them to wrap up whatever injuries that were bleeding, while applying pressure to them. The bleeding soon stopped.  
  
Netto ran downstairs, grabbed a bucketful of hot water, and brought some clean rags up with him. Mom was busy over at the neighbor's house baking cookies for Christmas with her. Netto saw no choice but to take his NetNavi's armor off, so he could get all the wounds taken care of. Taking off the armor allowed him a look at his muscular form, perfect for a warrior like he was. He hung the armor on his desk chair to give it a chance to dry off. Then he dipped a rag into the bucket of water. He didn't really care about his bed yet, and he was afraid that moving MegaMan might hurt him. As he lifted the left arm to clean it, he wondered if the movement hurt MegaMan.  
  
Looking on his face showed him a painful expression, and he saw the sweat dripping down his forehead. He wiped that off carefully, also noticing a gash that had been hidden under a few bangs of hair. There were dark rings under MegaMan's eyes, showing fatigue and exhaustion, and days of battling endlessly. There were bruises and cuts all over his arms and his legs looked like they'd taken quite a beating too, from running extreme distances. Netto glanced at the blue boots on the floor under his chair. They had holes on the soles and were worn. He brushed back the sweaty bangs, and placed a wet rag on MegaMan's forehead, because he felt a bit warm. Netto placed the covers over his best friend, and hoped for the best.  
  
He went down to the kitchen and grabbed something for the both of them to eat. More liquidy-type foods, such as apple sauce and chicken broth, and he also brought plenty of water up. He went into the closet in his room and dragged out the warmest blanket in the house, and set it over MegaMan because he still felt cold. He sat in his chair, knowing that he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. Even if he wanted to. Tending to his best friend in his time of need was more important than sleeping.  
  
Besides, how many times had MegaMan saved his life? Many, many times. One, two, three, four... His teachings pointed him in the right direction. He'd thought that friends didn't matter but Mega said they did. He was right in saying that, only meant the 'other' kind of friend. Netto remembered MegaMan's every word. "Friends matter, they care and will be there for you. They like what you like and you like what they do. And they're sometimes too loyal, like me." 'But how far does our friendship go?' Netto wondered seriously. It was able to send Mega flying when he needed him. It was able to send him spiralling down with him into depression where he could make him happy again. And it made MegaMan snap out of mindless annihilation. If their friendship could do that, they were very close. No, if their friendship was that strong, then it wasn't friendship anymore. 


	9. chapter 9

Chapter 9; dwellings  
  
in his state of unconsciousness, mega's mind dwelled on his subconscious thoughts. he knew that he had feelings now that he could become human. a netnavi couldn't normally do that. he could feel and he could experience feeling. especially from his operator.  
  
what was that warm feeling he got whenever he did something for his operator? as a netnavi experiencing this for the first time he had no clue. it bugged him, but it wasn't something he disliked. it only worried him a little because it was another thing unknown to him. did whatever that was matter anyway? was it anything serious? he didn't know. sometimes it got in the way of him fighting netbattles. it almost forced him back when he'd run away. with every step he'd taken he was reminded of what he was missing. and especially when he was under mind control by the WWW. that was the sole reason that he was alive right now.  
  
or was he? it was so dark. he couldn't open his eyes or move any of his muscles. he had a hard time breathing and he hurt all over. he didn't know the person who was spoon-feeding him through the mouth and he couldn't really tell. voices were like faded static. if it was netto... he didn't know what to think. would he be mad for leaving him? condemning him for what he had done? scared? or grateful that he had come back in whatever condition? he didn't know anything at all. there was so much that he didn't know about his own operator. that too, bugged him. he knew how to help him and knew how to netbattle. he sometimes knew what to say and sometimes he didn't. others he couldn't find words to speak. it was very hard on him. could it be that this situation about feelings wasn't difficult at all? was he just worrying too much? maybe... but how could he not worry? was it because... because he cared? impossible.  
  
he winced at his own thoughts. if he cared about his operator that much, he could get him into serious trouble. netto didn't know the truth and he had too many hidden secrets he couldn't share. even now when they were really close friends. mega knew that keeping them hidden and away from netto was the best way and he'd keep his operator safe that way. this way he could stay by his side. he knew all too well now. after he'd been taken hostage and put under www's control, his past had been restored. everything had come back to him all at once and that's part of the reason why he went berserk.  
  
...he'd been the WWW's creation all along. WWW was the World Three's true title. a netnavi designed to destroy the world so the WWW could rule over it. he was one of their experiments and he had the scars to prove it, too. his dreams told him of the horrible things, the pain and torture and lab tests and gene splicing. he was an all out battle machine. he relived the past each time, it was so vivid. he screamed far into the night and he couldn't take it anymore. his voice grew hoarse but he kept screaming. the dreams wouldn't stop coming. but the dreams didn't show him what had happened before the WWW and the experiments.  
  
the past didn't show him the day he was created or who created him or what not. there was just a black void. and seeing that black void both somehow calmed him and disturbed him. he might never know those days before. had he been someone else's netnavi before the WWW claimed him? had he been created by the WWW? or was it something else...? he could only wonder. he might never know. he may never ever know. for how could a part of his past be restored again, if there was just a black void where the picture had been cut out?  
  
|  
  
I looked straight at my bed at my NetNavi thrashing in his sleep. His face had the expression of a small child afraid of the dark or the monsters under the bed. He was trying to fight something off that was hurting him. And then he fell limp. I hated seeing him in so much pain. I'd tried everything I could. But he never woke up. He was trapped again, within his mind.  
  
I wondered how long this had been going on, and wondered how long his pain would continue. I didn't really know. I hoped his pain would end soon, that he'd just wake up one day and I'd see his smile again. I wanted everything to be normal again. But was it possible to go back to being normal? I don't know. If it had been me, I don't know. And I knew that just telling him that it's okay just won't do it. I wished that he would get up so that I could talk to him... but I guess I'll just have to wait. I didn't want to startle him or anything in this state. Who knows what that would do to him?  
  
I didn't want to wake him up, although watching him like this wasn't exactly something I wanted to keep doing. It was destroying me, I wasn't being able to do anything. MegaMan was here. I was here with him. But what could I do? And if mom was here, she'd find out about him because of Mega's screaming, caused by his unconscious nightmares. I made my hand touch his, gripping it softly. And to my surprise and shock, his hand gripped mine back. 


	10. chapter 10

Chapter 5; An Operator's Heart  
  
"Netto-kun..." the stirring NetNavi murmured, followed by a twinge of pain. Then was silent. "Mega?" Netto said hesitantly. But MegaMan had fallen into a deep and easy sleep. A small smile was placed on his lips. Netto realized that his hand was still touching his NetNavi's. He smiled softly, then collapsed to the floor, his head falling on the bed. Hanging half-off, Netto was knocked out. Many days without food or sleep made him just faint and get ill.  
  
A single emerald-colored eye opened and closed sleepily at the sudden movement that Netto's head had made. But the NetNavi was too exhausted to move, and saw whatever had caused the movement as not being important. -  
  
It was late in the afternoon the next day when MegaMan finally stirred out of his sleep. He felt much better, and like he'd been resting for a very long time. He opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of a white ceiling that was familiar to him. And then the memories of what happened hit him full in the face. Abduction, brainwashing, being under someone else's control. Having no choice but to do what he was commanded. And then there was the period of blackness where he knew not what he was doing, or if he was doing anything, so on and so forth.  
  
Where was he now? He wasn't in the internet, frozen by Iceman's blizzard. He was... he felt what he was laying on with his hands. He was on a bed under the covers. Which bed and whose it was, he didn't know. His hand grasped a thing that felt soft, and he lifted it to his face. It was his operator's blue bandana that he always had on his head. He was in Netto- kun's room. A thought of emergency and worry ran through his brain. Netto would never take off his bandana.  
  
MegaMan immediately sat himself upright on the bed, ignoring the nagging pain in his arms caused by the sudden movement. There wasn't anybody in the room. He saw his armor on the desk chair, hanging there. His boots were also there. He supposed that the door was locked, and he didn't hear a sound anywhere in the house. He was about to get out of the bed when he looked down on the floor to see if he was going to step on something. There Netto was, lying crumpled in a heap on the floor, trembling, his stomach making loud growling sounds. He reached a hand down and touched his operator's shoulder, who turned at the contact. He looked simply famished, exhausted, and surprised to see him, all at the same time. 


	11. chapter 11

Chapter 5.3; It's what I'm here for  
  
Netto glanced up at the ceiling of his room where he was lying on the bed. He was waiting for his NetNavi Megaman to come back up from the kitchen. Mega had insisted on getting food for the both of them, and had gone down in order to get some. The NetNavi was positively upset at him sacrificing his meals for him, and his sleep, and was ready to do anything for him.  
  
But it had already been 5 minutes, and he still had not come through the bedroom door. Netto was worried. There would be trouble if his mom was home, and had caught Megaman... at the thought, Netto immediately got out of the bed and ran out the bedroom door. Running down the stairs, he heard his mother screaming and Mega crying out on occasion. He could also hear metal striking upon something.  
  
His mom was hitting Megaman over the head with a pan, and he wasn't fighting back against her. "Mom stop!! Don't hurt my friend!!" Netto intervened, knocking the pan out of the scared woman's hands, making it clatter to the floor. She looked at him confused and still scared, but he only looked back at her condemingly, for hurting the young man he claimed was his friend. Blood was trickling down Mega's face through his fingers where he clutched the injury. Netto took him back upstairs without giving her an explanation.  
  
In the bathroom, he made Megaman sit down on the toilet seat. Brushing his bangs away, Netto cleaned out the nasty gash that the heavy pan had created with cotton and solution. Megaman felt lightheaded, and just stared into space at Netto's chest, wincing every once in a while at Netto dabbing at the head injury while applying pressure to it.  
  
"Why'd you just take the blows? You could have defended yourself." Netto said. Mega blinked at him. "That's your mother! I can't do that!" He cried. "You could have blocked." Netto said as he tied his bandana over the injury to keep the pressure. Blood was already soaking through onto it, because it was showing up against the blue bandana. "I'm still too weak to even fight back. I don't even know how I'm still alive after that pan assault." He said, laughing a little. Laughing caused him to clutch his head again, and grit his teeth in pain. Netto looked at him concerned and with anger for his mom who caused the pain.  
  
"Just lay down awhile. I'm going to give mom an explanation." He said, guiding Megaman to his bedroom down the hall. Mega was clutching his head, and his vision was making him dizzy. He was rapidly beginning to feel like throwing up. "Netto... I don't feel so good..." Mega said, hand going to hold his rumbling stomach. The second Netto turned to look into Mega's green face, the two of them were back in the bathroom, Megaman leaning over the toilet, retching up whatever had been in his empty stomach. Netto was rubbing his hand on Mega's back, making Mega feel better and more at ease. Netto flushed the toilet when Megaman pulled away from it, and handed him a glass of water and mouthwash. Mega swished the mouthwash around his mouth and spat it into the sink, then downed the water thirstily. "Thanks, Netto- kun. A lot." Megaman said when they got back to the bedroom. Netto tucked his friend into bed. "You're welcome." He said. Megaman smiled before closing his eyes, his head sinking down into the pillow. Netto closed the door behind himself when he went down to talk to his mom.  
  
Megaman looked up at the ceiling in thought. Netto was being really nice to him, taking really good care of him. But there must be a reason for such care. Netto was being extremely selfless, sacrificing sleep and food for him to get better. Why?  
  
Downstairs, Netto was busy talking to his mom on the couch in the living room. He wasn't going to tell her a story, but figured that he should in case his dad found out about what his NetNavi could do. "Mega is a really, really good friend of mine who's staying over with me. He was just getting snacks for us earlier to eat." He lied to his mom. She seemed to be more at ease now that he told her. "You should have told me, Lan! I'm really sorry for hurting your friend like that. Is he okay?" She inquired. He nodded. "Why'd you have to flip out like that? He really got hurt because you kept whacking him with that pan!" He said angrilly. "I'm sorry. I thought he was one of the WWW that had broken into the house, and I got so frightened because I didn't know what he could have done to me. Is he really hurt because of me? Please tell me." She said. "He's resting now. He was already seriously hurt by the WWW, but is recovering. The pan assault didn't really help him much." He said. His mom looked concerned; the WWW were all over the place, it seemed. "Please tell him that I'm sorry. Here, tell him to come down and I'll make the both of you a feast." His mom got up to go to the kitchen. "I don't think his stomach can handle food yet. He just threw up a short while ago." He said. She stopped preparing the food and got saltine crackers from out of the cupboard. "He sounds really sick, I hope he gets better."  
  
Netto went back up to his room, along with all the stuff that Megaman had wanted to bring up earlier. Cheese, peaches and apples, carrots and cauliflower, leftover filet of salmon, and a bottle of water. Megaman knew exactly what Netto liked to eat and drink. When he opened the door to his room, he was expecting to see Megaman sleeping. Instead, he was awake, lying in bed as if waiting for him to come back up.  
  
Green eyes followed him as he put all the food he had in his hands on the bed table nightstand, amongst the papers and the alarm clock. "Mom said she was sorry. I'm really sorry that happened to you, too. I should have told her." He said. Mega didn't answer him, because he was busy munching on crackers. "Netto-kun." Netto turned to his NetNavi when he was called. He was nibbling on the block of pepperjack cheese. "Hmph?" His speech came out muffled because there was food in his mouth. "Why?" Mega asked. Netto blinked, confused. That could have meant a million different things. "Why what?" Netto prodded Megaman on, taking another bite of cheese. "Why are you doing all of this for me? You're doing so much for me, and being really good to me, and I want to know why! You even brought these crackers up for me to eat (they're so good!)... and you even brought up the food I'd picked out. I wanna know why you're thinking so much about me!" Mega went on. Netto smiled. "You would do the same." He said, making the NetNavi stop speaking.  
  
"You were in need of help, and I helped you just as you had helped me before." Netto said. He then went back to nibbling on the cheese. Mega looked down at the box of crackers on the bed. There must be another reason besides that. It was too obvious! "But there must be another reason besides that. You've been too selfless with me..." He said. Netto put the cheese down, and looked at him. "You're right. I have sacrificed all of my food, and most of my sleep, to give to you. Why? Because you're my friend."  
  
Megaman looked down at the bed guiltily. How dare he question what his operator did? He knew that Netto would do anything, because he was... his friend. "I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have questioned you..." Megaman apologized, keeping his head down low. Netto blinked at his NetNavi. This was so unlike him. "Don't apologize to me, Mega. You know that you don't have to..." Netto said to him, causing Megaman to lift his head up a bit. "I'm the one who is sorry. For everything..." Megaman immediately had all his attention on Netto. "All the things that happened to you while you were on the 'net, it's my fault. I shouldn't have talked so loudly about friendship to you... if I hadn't, mom would have never found out about you..." He said. Megaman shook his head. "You normally talk loud when you're speaking about something you're interested in, so there's nothing to blame yourself on. I'm the one who was stupid to just up and leave you like that." Mega said. Netto looked up into his NetNavi's face, green eyes meeting brown. A smile took its place on Netto's tired face. "You're right. Thanks, Mega." He said. "Don't thank me, Netto-kun... it's what I'm here for." 


	12. chapter 12

Notes: This is probably the longest chapter out of all. Sorry about all the chapters titles being messed up (1- 5.5.). Sorry about not adding the Disclaimer on all chapters. You know that already.  
  
Chapter 5.5; hot chocolate  
  
Sitting by the fireplace in the company of his best friend, Netto took a sip of his hot chocolate. MegaMan sipped some of his, downing some of the tiny marshmallows floating in the hot liquid drink.  
  
The night was slowly crashing down upon the lands, white flakes of snow falling down in increasing speed. Two pairs of bright eyes looked out the window from where they sat, watching the sunset illuminate the snow-topped roofs of houses. Christmas lights hung down from the roof's gutters, bathing the house in green and red light.  
  
The interior of the Hikari house was littered with many Christmas decorations, such as a Santa that danced when you walked by. The tree was utterly magnificent, the fresh evergreen tree looking brilliant with the green and red orbs hanging off its branches, candy canes hidden amongst the cover of pine needles. Presents wrapped in silver were piled under the tree, of many shapes and sizes.  
  
Eggnog was sitting in the refrigerator, along with the Christmas goose, special mushroom soup, and other such condiments. Christmas carols were being sung in the street by a choir compiled of children, their beautiful voices sounding almost like those angels. Tonight was Christmas Eve... and everyone was merry.  
  
"Isn't it beautiful?" MegaMan said, peering out at the snow covering the previously green ground. Netto smiled at his gesture. "I've never seen anything like it." His friend continued. A moment of silence passed between the two, the quietness accompanied by the steady crackling of flames giving off warmth.  
  
"It's your first Christmas, Mega. Snow is falling, houses are lit up..." Netto began to say. MegaMan turned his attention away from the scene outside the window. "And I'm glad that I'm spending it with you." MegaMan completed the sentence.  
  
Netto was about to say more when his mother came in from the kitchen, interrupting the two. "Out, you two! Or else you want to be sucked up along with all the snow you tracked in!" She said, dragging a huge vacuum behind her. Huge puddles of water were on the floor where snow had been, having fallen off Netto and MegaMan's boots when they had come in. The two boys ran out of the room, their mugs in hand, and sat down at the table. "A snowball fight like we'd had earlier is worth being yelled at." Netto laughed, and MegaMan joined him.  
  
The two had gone out in the knee-deep snow, and built snowmen and made snowangels, and then broke out into a huge snowball war, even getting bystanders involved in the fight. Dex and Yai had been out there, and they had gotten pummeled many times by the two, Netto having flung the first snowball. It had been a big one, too. But then the two chickens had fled into their homes to shelter.  
  
MegaMan had laughed at the sight of the two running from Netto like that. He imagined that they were wondering who he was, and wondered what guesses they were coming up with. It was plenty interesting to think of what else he could do to them, but he figured to just let it go already. Netto wasn't sad anymore about the whole thing... MegaMan looked across the table at Netto sitting in the chair, slurping the rest of the hot chocolate out of his cup.  
  
Netto noticed the two bright green eyes gazing at him, and waved a hand in front of his NetNavi's face, snapping him out of the trance he had been in. "Hey Mega, you okay? You look like you're daydreaming..." Netto said. MegaMan shook his head and smiled. "Yeah. I guess I was for a moment there." He looked into the mug in his hand, and swished the brown liquid lying on the bottom around. It had long since gone cold, and he wasn't about to drink it anytime soon.  
  
"So... can I ask what you were thinking about? Or no?" Netto asked him, bringing MegaMan's attention back to him. MegaMan considered the question, then a plan popped up in his mind. "It's nothing private, but something I'd still want to keep secret, if you don't mind." MegaMan said. Netto smiled. "You're entitled to your own secrets, you know!" Netto said, smiling brightly. Breaking his gaze away from his operator and best friend, he didn't want to be caught daydreaming again. The last thing he wanted was for Netto to ever worry about him again.  
  
"You know what...? It seems that the demon that'd been plaguing me has vanished." He said, putting his head on the table so that it rested between his arms. Netto seemed to be concerned, and then nodded his head lightly. "I hope it stays this way... but I can't be sure..." MegaMan drawled on. Netto listened to him, and sunk into his own thoughts at the question his friend brought up. Could the WWW be planning something horrible again even as they speak? "What if the demon came back again...?" Netto thought aloud, his head resting as his friend's was. MegaMan 'hmphed' in acknowledgement of the question. "Then I might go off the deep end again." He said. Netto locked eyes with MegaMan, as the two shivered at the thought.  
  
The Net still hadn't recovered from the damage that had been dealt earlier. Neither had MegaMan, who still had a lot of guilt he was keeping secret inside of him, still believing it was his fault having caused the mess. As long as he held that guilt and hatred for his actions, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. "You sure clobbered the Net, though... It just goes to show how weak the NetBattler forces are. Which means that we really are the only ones who can truly do something about anything... especially the WWW." Netto said, with a smile pulling on his lips. MegaMan simply nodded his head in response. It was true that the NetBattler forces were horribly weak, having failed in stopping all of the WWW's previous attacks that he had stopped. So they were really the only ones capable of doing anything decent.  
  
"Lan, time to set the table! Oh, and dad called, he said he was coming soon." His mom called from the living room once the vacuum had been turned off. Netto's eyes lit up, but when they fell upon MegaMan again, the excitement seemed to fade a little. "What if dad recognizes you from the attacks?" Worry was in his voice. MegaMan shrugged his shoulders, seeming to be less concerned about that. "Whatever happens, happens..." he said. Netto blinked. MegaMan noticed this. "I doubt that he'll recognize me from that. I mean, you said that there were no other NetNavis who could maintain a human form... and he's not going to guess." MegaMan continued, and Netto nodded his head.  
  
The two of them had researched on the Net about how he could be in the real world, and there had been no information or other happenings. "Which makes me think that somehow or another, I'm different than all the other NetNavis out there..." he continued, "To be honest, I don't really know why I am..." Netto reached across the table, and took MegaMan's hand in his own. He offered him a smile. MegaMan appeared to cheer up.  
  
The two got up from their seats and went into the kitchen, gathering the special china and silverware and glasses needed to set the table with. Mom watched them carefully as the two performed the task, still a bit edgy around Netto's friend, because she didn't know him too well. She wondered if her son should hang around with those kind of people, who were just a little bit strange... mother's intuition told her something was up... as if they were hiding some secret from her. Ever since Netto had gotten that PET, and had disobeyed her by keeping it. She couldn't help but wonder if something she had done in her raising of him caused this, something she had done wrong. Maybe she could ask during dinnertime, she planned.  
  
MegaMan had set the napkins in their place, and had put the silverware in the correct positions. Netto had the dishes and bowls, and glasses, and whatever else was needed to set the table right. The two of them stepped back, and observed the table. Yes, everything looked perfect. The candles were there, the red pointsetta in the middle, a welcome Christmas decoration to the otherwise bland table, covered in a white tablecloth. "My dad's going to be home an hour from now. We'd better get everything looking perfect... because it's been a while since he's been here." Netto said. MegaMan noticed the tone in Netto's voice, that he really wanted to impress his father. He seemed perfectly intent on making everything flawless. There must be another reason besides giving his father a big welcome at home, though. Perhaps Netto was aiming to distract his father from putting suspicion on him...  
  
"Netto, you don't have to defend me." MegaMan said as he placed a chair in the right position. Netto didn't look up. "Did you see mom? She's really suspicious of you... I don't know, but I think she knows something's up. We'd better be careful." He said. Mega shook his head rapidly. "I can't just stand by with caution, and be on my toes all the time... I just want everything to be at peace. And most importantly... I-" A knock on the door interrupted Mega's sentence, and he stopped abruptly. Mom opened the front door to reveal Netto's father, back from work. Even Science Lab scientists worked on Christmas. "I just want to be with you... Netto-kun." MegaMan finished, standing alone, a hand placed on the table. Netto was by his dad, giving him a big hug; there was a huge smile on his face, and he looked really happy to see him. Seeing stuff like this made Mega's heart melt a bit... and it also made him a little bit jealous. Just a little bit. He cringed at his own thoughts, his own feelings. He felt ashamed to have them. There was no chance in Hell that Netto would... love him back.  
  
/ Christmas wishes come true, when snowflakes fall from a sky so blue... /  
  
"So you must be Mega. I'm Lan's father, Yuuchirou Hikari. Lan's told me so much about you." Netto's dad extended a hand to his son's friend, who looked bewildered. Mega blinked as he shook his hand. "He has?" He questioned. Netto looked embarrassed, of course dad was going to tell Mega everything he told him about his friend. Mom got out the foods that they were going to eat for dinner, and Mega and Netto sat down. Netto was looking at Mega from where he was sitting at the table; it turns out that they were sitting directly across from each other. If they were to stretch out their arms, they could touch each other's hands. But there were candles and other stuffs in the way. And Netto wasn't thinking about that at all, anyway. The thought had crossed MegaMan's mind for a second before it had melted away. He was determined to forget about his feelings for now; this was dinnertime spent with his operator's family for crying out loud. There was no room for that.  
  
Mom started passing around the mushroom soup and dad was sharpening the knives used for cutting the goose in all its deliciousness. MegaMan was watching the whole thing; he still couldn't believe that he was included in this traditional Christmas dinner. He wasn't a part of the family. He felt he ought to say something... "I'm honored to be included in this dinner... I'm grateful." He said, looking up at all of them. "Don't mention it, any friend of Lan's is welcome any time. Besides, there's more than enough food to feed an extra mouth." Dad laughed. MegaMan felt a little better, but he still felt like he was intruding... Netto noticed this. "Mega... it's okay. You're a part of the family now, remember?" He said. Mega heard this and felt more comfortable and at home. Mom raised her eyebrows a bit in surprise.  
  
"A part of the family? What do you mean?" She asked. Mega whirled his head around to face her at her words. They sounded condescending and they were laced with suspicion. It was perfectly clear now that she didn't trust him at all. Netto looked towards his dad, perhaps he could straighten things out. "He's been here for a bit longer than a month now. Lan says he's a friend visiting, but it's like he doesn't have a family at all. They never call, never check up on him-" she set her fork back on the table, along with the mushroom soup "and it does not make any sense at all, that he would be here this long! It's very suspicious. You're hiding something from me, Lan. Be honest." She looked at her son, with a look that said 'I know you're lying'. Netto shifted under the gaze. Mega slammed his hand on the table, causing her to look up at him, startled. His teeth were gritted and he looked quite upset. "I can't believe that you would question Netto-kun's kindness!!" He yelled. He couldn't take it anymore. "He was kind enough to bring me here and give me a shelter from outside. He even let me eat his food, sleep in his bed, and let me eat at a special dinner such as this one." He stopped to calm himself down. Netto's mom looked really stunned, Netto's dad looked speechless. Netto was clenching his fists and staring down at the table.  
  
Mega stood up, and turned towards the direction of the front door. "Whether you trust me or not, I will always be by Netto's side. As long as I am his NetNavi..." He said, then shut his green eyes, and walked out the door without saying another word. Netto was quiet for an instant, then he shot up to go after him. "Wait, MegaMan!!" He cried, scrambling after him. Dad's eyes widened considerably at the familiar name... mom was pale at the discovery of the young man's true identity... and neither could fathom just how it was possible a NetNavi could exist in the real world. "Mega! Come back!" Netto called his NetNavi's name. But there was no finding him; it seemed that the blue one had disappeared into the storm of white powder. Even his footsteps had been covered by the quickly-falling snowflakes. Netto clutched his jacket, and shivered, but pressed on in spite of the cold he felt. "MegaMan!!" He ran down the unplowed streets, looking into alleyways, store doorways... anywhere that he could think he could be. "Mega!!!" He called until his voice was hoarse, and even then, he continued to call his name, though it came out as whispers... It was his responsibility to bring him back, because that was where he belonged, no matter what his parents said. He had no idea that MegaMan would have reacted that way, in defense for him. And what he said...  
  
''I will always be by Netto's side. As long as I am his NetNavi...'' 


	13. chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own MegaMan, just this horribly alternate-universe storyline.  
  
Author's Notes: It could take quite a while for the next chapter, just so you know. Thanks to all who reviewed. Enzan will be coming in a future chapter, but not as what you might think. And I tried doing dialogue separate, it's hard. I'll do it when I learn how. This may be horribly formatted. It's the computer I used to type it on.  
  
Chapter 13; Christmas Presents  
  
MegaMan was walking through the streets, observing other families through the windows of their homes. Children were given gift-wrapped boxes from under the tree, and when they opened them, inside were toys, coloring books,crayons, stuffed animals or dolls... a surprise that seemed to fit their personalities exactly. Some of the families were praying over dinner, before dishing out the food at the dining room table.  
  
If only he could have that kind of dinner with his operator's family. He wondered a lot of things... he felt a lot of things were his fault... he felt terrible for running out and having not turned back when Netto had called him... he felt terrible for losing it at the kitchen table... felt terrible for staying out of the PET for so long... but what else could he have done? Held it in? There wasn't space in there anymore... With the demon threatening to take control again, it took nearly everything he had to keep it locked inside... it was slowly becoming a losing battle, what with all the negative thoughts and events going on lately...  
  
MegaMan walked towards the center of ACDC town, where he stopped to look at the magnificent [INSERT SIZE HERE] tree, decorated with green and red lights, along with a string or two of white. A golden star was placed on the top, and from where he stood, it looked like it blended in with the rest of the stars in the sky.  
  
He sighed, and was about to leave the sight when a hand placed itself on his shoulder. Startled, he turned to face whoever it was that was present there with him. Surprised, he found that it was Netto's dad. He backed up after brushing his hand off his shoulder, and looked a bit upset. Yuuchirou raised his hands to calm him down. "Hold on, I just came to talk." He said. Mega thought about it, before coming a bit closer.  
  
"I'm sorry for interrupting your dinner like that... I know that it's an important part of the holidays." MegaMan said, and Yuuchirou shook his head. "Forget about it. It's nothing. That's not the reason why I want to talk with you. You see... you're MegaMan, right? The NetNavi?" MegaMan stiffened, and looked to be about ready to start a fight, like he was defending something. "What if I am?" He said. Netto's dad simply smiled. "Relax, I'm on your and Lan's side." Mega seemed to believe him, since he wasn't suspicious about him or anything like Netto's mom had been.  
  
"There are many people out there who want you deleted." Yuuchirou broke the news to him. Mega's eyes widened, stunned. "What?!" "All of the Officials want you dead, after you destroyed the Net. All the programs and NetNavis on the Net know about it, and will report to the Officials when they see you. But they couldn't find you yet, because I suppose you've been out here in the real world with Lan."  
  
Mega took in all this information. He'd had no idea that the NetBattler Association would want to delete him, but it made sense... he was the one who annihilated the Net in that rampage...  
  
"I don't know how you were able to gain a human form, but I'm glad that you did. Lan told me how you helped him get better after he got sick, and how you helped him out on his homework when he couldn't get to school. He told me so much about you, but never anything out of the ordinary. He wouldn't talk about the incident... not even a word. It seemed really important that the details be kept secret." He continued. MegaMan let out a sigh of relief; he was glad that Netto hadn't told anyone about that event and what had followed.  
  
"He did tell me that you two were involved in the fightings with the WWW. Though I am mad about that, I'm sure that Lan just wanted to do something about the NetCrime issues. I suppose that they're out chasing you?" Yuuchirou asked. "Yes, they are. It's been peaceful lately, though." MegaMan said. "They want you badly, from what the Officials have observed. It may be peaceful now, but they're just taking the time they need to hatch their new plan." Dad said. "Do you have any idea why they would be after you? Maybe I could help you shake them, if you tell me." Came the question.  
  
Mega looked him in the eye, and sighed. "It's something I'd like to keep secret for now..." He said. Dad frowned. "They're going to keep chasing you..." he said. Mega looked at him again, and dad took a step back. "...Fine. There's problems with my memory... I don't know what my purpose was... and I might be directly involved with the WWW." MegaMan said. Dad listened with utmost interest.  
  
"When they brainwashed me, there were memories that came back... me in the lab being experimented on by them, me being used... and when I came to again I was certain that the WWW had created me... and they must want me back. It must have something to do with whatever my creation was intended for..." Mega said aloud. Dad gaped at what he had just told him. "Have you told Lan any of this?" He asked. Mega shook his head rapidly. "No! He must not know. I do not wish to hurt him in any way. I am afraid that what I feel will seriously hurt him... especially the fact that I could be a part of the whole WWW's scheme." He nearly shouted. Dad was silent. MegaMan shook his head again. "I... I don't know. He has to be told, but just not now..." Yuuchirou placed a hand on Mega's shoulder again.  
  
"What do you say we go back? Dinner's getting cold." He smiled at the troubled NetNavi, who looked up at him with a surprised look on his face. "Really?" "Yes. Right after we find Lan though, he's still out there looking all over for you." Dad said. Green eyes widened before they tore away from Dad. "NETTO-KUN!!!!" Mega yelled in the streets, running where he felt Netto would be. Dad followed him, but was falling behind; the NetNavi was making too much distance in too short a time.  
  
"Netto!! Where are you?!" MegaMan again called his name. He'd already been down several streets and was about ready to cover another. He crossed through an alleyway and took a look at the street before him. A person was bundled under a snow-covered stop sign at the end of the road, coughing as if trying to regain their voice. "Me...ga...man..." Mega barely heard the whispering call of his name. "Netto-kun!!!" MegaMan ran to the fallen figure, who tried to pull himself up at the sound of his name. "Netto!" Mega threw his arms around the stiffly frozen Netto, his jacket covered with white snow. "Where were you?! I was worried sick!" Netto rasped. Mega looked at him, smiling. "Sorry... now let's go back... dinner's waiting..." Netto slung his arm over MegaMan's neck, and they both met dad halfway.  
  
"Geez Netto-kun... don't come running after me..." Mega scolded him. He didn't like his best friend to be sick because of him. Netto shook his head, and laughed a bit, trudging along in the snow with the assistance of his friend. "It's my responsibility to bring you back home... that's where you belong, Mega." He said. Mega smiled a knowing smile. "I'll always come back, Netto-kun."  
  
Netto and MegaMan sat back down in their seats at the kitchen table. Dad had talked mom into being more tolerant of the NetNavi during his stay here, but she still had her worries. Especially if Mega was the one who caused the damage on the Net. But it was Christmas dinner... No matter who was eating with them, they sure were welcome to. "Now, we can all dig in." Dad said. Mom had heated all the food back up again in the oven, so it was nice and piping hot.  
  
Mega was the one who cut the Christmas goose, since he was the honored guest at the time. Dad was a close second. Netto watched him as the NetNavi cut the side of the goose, who was nervous at said peoples watching him so attentively. There was a huge sweatdrop forming on the side of his head, and Netto sure wasn't helping any with his drooling mouth looking at all the juices coming from the goose. MegaMan slipped a finger under his mouth and closed it for him, then smiled and put a slice of the juicy white meat on his operator's plate. He then passed the slices around after he had made enough cuts, and the food was passed around accordingly.  
  
MegaMan cut into his goose politely and forked a chunk of it, and was about to put in into his mouth when Netto caught his eye... stuffing his face, as usual. Mom and dad weren't watching, since their eyes were locked in a loving gaze. MegaMan leaned over and tapped Netto on the shoulder, "Netto- kun, this is Christmas dinner!", and Netto stopped stuffing piece after piece of food in his mouth. With attentive eyes he watched as MegaMan showed him how he ate, and he followed his example. Slice, cut, chunk, mouth. Piece after piece. Netto thought it much better than scarfing the food down, and he began to feel embarrassed at the way he had eaten earlier. MegaMan smiled at him as he quickly finished his helping. Netto cast his eyes as his friend, and MegaMan knew that he was thanking him. Mega nodded his head as a 'you're welcome'.  
  
The family ate a peaceful meal, greatly enjoying each other's company. Netto and Mega were helping mom in the kitchen wash the dishes and put the leftover food away for tomorrow's dinner. Dad was in the living room watching sports, or whatever he was watching. Mom was too busy to keep an eye on Netto's friend, though she had been told not to be so suspicious of him anyway.  
  
After the last plate had been put back into the china cabinet, the family gathered in front of the tree. Dad sat in the chair while mom sat in a chair she had pulled in from the dining room. Netto kneeled down on the floor, while Mega followed his example, sitting cross-legged. He guessed this was the time when they would open presents, from what he had seen walking about the town. Somehow he knew that he would just be watching them open their gifts, that there would be no way that he would get one of his own.  
  
Netto handed his mom a small box while he handed dad a long box that was giftwrapped in bright red paper. Mom covered her mouth in astonishment as she held up the colorful beaded bracelet than Netto had made for her. She promptly hugged him and kissed him as a thank you. Dad lifted up his present, which was a black and blue tie. He remembered that Netto had been with him when he'd glanced at it in the store. He gave his thoughtful son a big hug, and Netto smiled, returning the hug.  
  
Netto then was handed his own present by his mom, that dad and her had bought him together. He excitedly opened the wrapping, after customarily shaking the box first, and opened the medium-sized box that was wrapped within. In it were school supplies and stationary, such as notebooks, pencils, pens, stapler, etc.! Being the A+ student that he was, Netto was way happy with what he got. He got up and hugged both his parents happilly.  
  
MegaMan smiled cheerfully at his operator's happiness. It made him feel good that he was so joyous and happy. He shuffled the box in his hand around behind his back. He didn't know what Netto would think about it if he gave it to him, because of all that nice stuff that his parents got him. But Mega got up anyway, after telling himself to give it a shot, and handed it over to Netto, smiling as he did so. Netto's face lit up even more as he accepted the gift from the NetNavi, who was anxiously awaiting his reaction, whatever it might be. Eyes widened as he lifted the lid off the box. Inside was a blue and yellow book, that upon opening the covers, revealed white lined paper pages. "Oh my god! How did you know I wanted a journal?!" Netto exclaimed as he joyfully threw his friend into a loving hug. Mega was blushing a bright pink, and thankfully neither of Netto's parent's noticed.  
  
"I was thinking you could write in there, and not in your notebooks all the time..." Mega said. Netto smiled up at him. "Thanks for thinking of that! Anyway, here's -your- present now!" Netto gleefully handed him small box from under the tree that was neatly covered in green giftwrap. Both his mom and dad watched them as they exchanged gifts. Mega was speechless, his mouth hanging open for some time now as he tried to regain the use of words. If this was his reaction now, who knows what his reaction will be when he opens it!  
  
Netto was highly anticipating the opening of the gift, as Mega carefully undid the purple Christmas bow that was tied around it. The giftwrap was tossed with the other giftwrappings, and MegaMan was holding a gold box in his hands. Opening it, his eyes met with the distinctive shine of silver. A silver chain necklace... Mega felt the silver chain with his fingers, feeling its smooth texture. A wide smile was on his face the entire time, his eyes practically glistening with happiness. The last thing he thought that Netto would do would be to have gotten him a present.  
  
"What do you think, Mega?" Netto's voice brought him out of his thoughts. Mega looked into his thoughtful and kind brown eyes, and smiled genuinely. "This is the first present I ever got... Thank you!" Mega embraced him in a big warm hug of appreciation, nearly knocking Netto over and on to the floor. Netto returned the hug, both friends smiling happilly. And while both boys were busy, mom and dad had gone into the living room to share a loving kiss between each other. This was one holiday that MegaMan wouldn't soon forget. After the hug was broken, the two of them were ready to go upstairs to prepare for bed. It was already past midnight, and there was a full day of fun awaiting them just around the bend.  
  
Mega glanced up at the doorframe above the stairs. A cluster of green leaves with small red berries were hanging suspended from a small wire. Before he could ask Netto what they were and why they were hanging from up there, he was astonished to find that Netto had leaned over and kissed him on the cheek while he was in a daze. Netto pulled away after laughing lightly, and dashed up the stairs, leaving MegaMan flabbergasted. A hand moved itself up, brushing his cheek lightly, as if he would find something there. The spot still felt warm. A twinge of feeling rushed through the confused and hopeful NetNavi as he ran upstairs.  
  
He opened the door, to find Netto on his bed on his stomach, laughing hysterically. Mega stood looking at his operator quizzically [puzzedly] from the doorway. "You should have seen the look on your face!" Was all Netto could get out, before he gave in to another bout of wild laughter. A tomato-red blush appeared on MegaMan's face. "Why did you do that back there?" He asked him when he had calmed down a bit. "Tradition is, you kiss whoever's under the mistletoe." Netto could only hold his laughter in for another second before he burst out again at the event. "Haha, you should have seen your face!" Again Netto fell to laughter. So those green leaves and berries were called mistletoe, huh. Mega was still blushing, Netto was still laughing, but the two gradually calmed down.  
  
Mega sat down on the end of the bed next to Netto's feet. He was about to ask Netto what the kiss meant to him, even though it was only a mock kiss he guessed, but decided against it. Netto was still very high on sugar cookies and cake. Plus, he did know that Netto was very dense when it came to feelings of love. Which was very strange, since as a poet, Netto wrote very much about the subject. "Netto-kun, are you done laughing yet?" Mega muttered to him. Netto didn't answer him, and Mega looked over at him to see his friend jotting down an entry in his new journal.  
  
Mega smiled, knowing that his friend was occupied at the moment, and took the necklace that was still clutched in his hand to his face. Looking at it, it was a chain of links that was nearly choker-style, but was still long enough to be hanging down the neck a bit close to the chest. MegaMan was about to put it on when he heard Netto say his name. "Mega, wait, before you put that on..." The now more quiet boy reached into his bed table's drawer, and brought out two rings. He handed the both of them to the speechless Navi, who rolled them around in his hand. Netto sat up, and taking the necklace, put the chain with the rings added on to it around his neck.  
  
MegaMan looked down at the two rings dangling from his necklace. It was definitely weird having something around his neck, but he would most likely get used to it if he wore it for a bit. He was truly a lot happier with the two rings acting like pendants. Both were silver, but one had black crosses as a design, and the other was a high school ring with a blue gem in the middle. How Netto had gotten a hold of that one, he didn't know... but wasn't about to ask, either.  
  
Mega threw his arms around him appreciatively, and Netto found himself blushing a color like that Christmas ornament that was hanging on the Christmas tree. Mega broke the hug to turn on the cd player in Netto's room, filling the area with rock music.  
  
| Gob :– For the Moment  
  
Go away, I'm afraid  
  
With you, there could be no escape  
  
I have no faith, I've seen truth and reason go down the drain  
  
But I cling to you for survival and I know that you are my Bible  
  
Get out, I'm scared, for the moment  
  
But I know you'll be there  
  
Well I'm scared for the moment  
  
But I know you'll be there  
  
By the way, things you say  
  
Freak me out, I go out of my head  
  
I feel no shame when I turn my back and walk away  
  
But I cling to you for survival  
  
And I know that you are my Bible  
  
Get out, I'm scared for the moment  
  
But I know you'll be there  
  
Well I'm scared, for the moment  
  
But I know you'll be there |  
  
And then another song came on after that one had finished. Since it was a burned cd that the two of them had ILLEGALLY made, there were mixed songs on there. Netto wrote in his journal book, filling the pages with his neat writing, as the songs played. Megaman was sitting on the floor, leaning his back against the bed. Thoughts ran through his mind, though the songs were driving them out as quickly as they came. A daydream, that something would happen soon.  
  
Glancing over at Netto, he was still writing in the new journal he had gotten him. Geez, he had a lot to write, having filled five pages already with sentences and words. Probably writing down all that had happened to himself during the past year. Secretly, Mega wished that he, too, had gotten one... but he didn't have the money. It was too dangerous for him to keep one, anyway. Where would he keep it? Oh well. Even if he didn't have a journal, he was glad that he had given Netto one. He desperately needed one, what with him writing his poetry in his school notebook and having the teachers getting him in trouble. Yawning brought him out of his thoughts, and he put his head down on his chest, realizing that he had been nodding off quite a while ago.  
  
Netto's brown eyes cast themselves on the drowsy NetNavi, and he smiled. It had been a very busy and exciting day for the both of them. The only reason he was awake was because of the gigantic amount of sugar he had taken, and the desire to write as much of his thoughts down as he could. Glancing at the alarm clock on his dresser told him it was nearly 3'o clock in the morning. The sun would be up at 6am, welcoming a new day. Knowing that if they didn't get to bed soon, they'd be too exhausted to go sledding down the hill in the afternoon.  
  
Placing an extra blanket over Megaman's shoulders, he was answered with a slight murmur. Holding back a light smile, Netto put his journal and his pen underneath his pillow for safe keeping, to keep others from reading it while he was asleep. Switching off his lamplight, the room was enveloped in darkness, the only light present was the light of the half-moon bouncing off the white snow on the ground outside. Placing his head on the pillow, he closed his eyes. A big day was lying ahead of him. Oh, if only he knew just how big a day it would be. But before Netto succumbed to the inviting sleep, he turned on the portable cd player on his dresser, and made it so that it would shut off after the song had ended. He thought, that a nice lullaby would do on Christmas Eve...  
  
Digital Monsters: Christmas Illusion –  
  
| We were always together no matter what, it all started with believing in each other  
  
We were able to become stronger because we were together  
  
Just for today we'll take a break from battles  
  
Let's decorate the town on this holy night  
  
Look, the stars are shining, let's begin, come on, let's begin  
  
Let's sing, our Merry Christmas, let's paint the light of dreams  
  
With the two of us and everyone together  
  
Let's soar away, Merry Christmas, on our song  
  
This joy will continue forever, wherever...  
  
If one wish is granted tonight, it would be cool  
  
If Santa Claus, bringing smiles, gave me a friend like you as a present  
  
Reach out, Merry Christmas, everyone hold hands  
  
Ring the bells to be heard all over the world  
  
Let's sing, our Merry Christmas, with our strong feelings  
  
We'll keep singing forever, wherever  
  
Only tonight is Merry Christmas  
  
Many lights are enfolding us, making us one  
  
With love, Merry Christmas  
  
We'll continue to sing a never-ending song, from our hearts, from our hearts | 


	14. chapter 14

Disclaimer: don't ask, you know already. \\ Warning: Alternate Universe, based loosely on the game, and done for fun.  
  
Chapter 14; My Turn  
  
- - -- - Megaman's POV - -- -- -  
  
The moment I opened my eyes, I could feel the immense amount of danger in the air. Getting up hurriedly, I let the green blanket resting around my shoulders fall off onto the ground, collapsing in a heap. My Operator was still asleep. Heck, of course he was. He'd sleep through anything if he got sugar through his system the night before. Especially those chocolate bars, uh, 3 Musketeers, with the whopping sugar count of 40 grams. And it didn't help that he'd eaten all four slices of cake, either. I sighed, a smile on my face despite the situation.  
  
Turning the doorknob, I stepped out into the hall, then shut it, careful not to make any noise that would wake Netto up. Going down the stairs, Netto's mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking their mugs of coffee and eating breakfast. Dad cast me a glance, as if he were trying to find out what I was doing. Mom wasn't looking my way, perhaps on purpose. I assumed that dad was suspicious of me, since I was without Netto.  
  
But I shrugged that feeling off, the more present feeling of danger the first thing on my mind. I shot him a serious look, wanting to tell him that something was up. I think he got my point, because he'd turned back to look at mom, so as not to alarm her. Going to the window, I looked outside, but saw nothing that would pose such a threat that would create this feeling. Only the feeling of danger wasn't going away.  
  
I was contemplating on going out to investigate when an explosion rocked the area, jolting me with the impact. Had I not been holding on to the windowsill, I would have fallen to the floor. I saw the doghouse-security system catch on fire without warning. Then the light bulbs in the streetlight lamps shattered from an overload of electricity, and manhole covers were being blown off, one after the other, towers of flames shooting up from underground. People were soon running scared; there was no order. I ducked from where I was standing by the window-pane, just in time to avoid being hit by one of the projectile manholes, which crashed through the window, shattering it. It landed on the couch, charring the fabric.  
  
Mom had let out a terrified scream a few instants ago, dad coaxing her under the table, where they would be safe. I gritted my teeth after looking at their scared faces, their terrified and confused eyes staring at me. They didn't know what was going on, but I did. And what was happening did not have to involve them!  
  
-- -Netto's POV-- - -  
  
A tired boy's eyes opened wide at the sound of screaming, explosions, and widespread panic. Launching himself out of bed, he quickly ran down the stairs out of his bedroom, failing to notice that someone was missing. He was greeted by the sight of his mom and dad by the broken living room window. Mom looked terrified for her life, and dad was holding her, silent. Another explosion rocked the house, and electricity was crackling. It also felt like summer weather, when Christmas had been just the previous night.  
  
Netto opened the front door to look, seeing that his parents weren't about to give him an explanation as to what was happening. He saw the glass of the street lights on the sidewalks, the manhole covers off, and the doghouse- security system smoking. "Lan, on the tv." Dad said, startling Netto for a second. He went back in, and rejoined his parents.  
  
Dad had turned the tv on, and it showed his NetNavi Megaman standing protectively on the screen, back facing them, silent, his arm buster at the ready. It was pointed at something in the distance. There were 3 WWW NetNavis approaching him, Netto identified them as being Elecman, Bomberman, and Fireman. He saw an unidentifiable expression on Megaman's face before the blue Navi ran off, engaging all three of them in battle at once.  
  
"Megaman saw what was happening and without a second thought, he jacked himself into the tv to protect us. If it weren't for him, none of us would be here..."  
  
Netto heard his dad's voice. Shaking his head, he turned his eyes towards his dad's face.  
  
"No! He can't fight yet, he's still too weak from last time!"  
  
Dad put his attention towards the fight happening on the tv. After Bomberman attacked, Megaman dodged, but fell onto his knees, and looked to be breathing heavily. Elecman quickly took the opening, launching an electric burst, but Megaman had managed to compose himself in time to block it. Indeed, Megaman was having a hard time fighting.  
  
"Even so, there's nothing we can do, because he went in without the assistance of the PET. Meaning that an Operator would be disconnected from the NetNavi."  
  
Dad shook his head at the situation. Netto kept his attention on the tv, wishing that he could do something. In the end, there was really nothing he could do. He was unable to send any battle chips, and probably couldn't send him any useful advice as well. Megaman was protecting him and his family with his life... and he knew it. Although it looked like Megaman was outmatched, silently, in his mind, he was cheering his NetNavi on.  
  
- -- --- Megaman's POV-- -- -  
  
The WWW NetNavis had gone too far. Having infiltrated the Hikari household with the direct intent of causing them harm was the last straw. I stole an instant glance outside at my Operator and his parents. Netto-kun was watching me, and I could feel him encouraging me.  
  
Quickly dodging Fireman's tower of flames, I shot back with my Rockbuster, which he dodged. Bomberman threw another bomb, which flew through the air, sparking. I scrambled out of the way, the explosion engulfing the area in which I had been in. I escaped, the blast having caught me though. I took a look at my bleeding leg, which let my guard down. Elecman's blast caught me by surprise. I screamed, feeling what must have been 100,000,000 volts of powerful electricity surge through my body. However, I didn't pass out because of the attack. I was still standing. For some reason, I felt more powerful... like I was ready to knock their lights out.  
  
"Is that the best you've got?"  
  
I aimed my Rockbuster back at them, scattering shots in a barrage. I saw the shots hit Fireman and Bomberman. The bomb he was holding went off before he could throw it, sending them flying. The two NetNavis were forced to plug out because of the damage. Now all that was left was Elecman... whom at that moment, I couldn't see, nor could I sense.  
  
I looked around, scanning the battlefield, feet firmly planted on the charred floor, holding my ground. I needed to be sure to be ready for anything, had to be in control of this battle. A crackle in the air behind me alarmed me, as I threw myself away from my position, just as an electrical surge sparked up, creating a hole in the ground. Elecman charged me, knocking me down onto the ground, jolts of energy hitting me from his hands. I was losing consciousness, and fast. I suddenly knew that... I wasn't going to win this battle.  
  
//to be continued... cliffhangers suck, ne? 


	15. chapter 15

**netnitro chapter 15; stop it**

--Netto's POV--

"No Megaman!! Get up!!"

I slammed my hands on the wall, eyes never leaving the screen where my NetNavi was trapped in battle.

"Don't let the WWW beat you!!"

"Lan calm down!"

My dad pulled me away from the tv. I didn't blame him - even I knew I was becoming hysterical. I was about ready to throw myself at the screen to see if I could join Megaman.

"Mega!!"

I pushed myself away from dad, wanting to stay as close as I could to my best friend.

"N-Netto-kun... _tatsukete_...!"

"MEGA!!"

"No Lan... there's nothing you can do now."

I stood silent at my dad's words. Megaman's hand was reaching out towards me, Elecman relentlessly pounding him, the WWW NetNavi following his orders to delete him obediently. He was begging me to help him. And all I could do was just stand there helpless, worthless to him in his time of need. I clutched the blue PET in my hands. He was going to die soon. He was... going to... No! NO!!

"MEGAMAN!!!"

I cried out, there must be something I could do! I knew that without the controls to the PET there was nothing I could do, but there had to be another way to make Elecman stop.

"Don't take him away from me!!"

I could picture myself kicking and punching Elecman - I'd do anything to make him stop. For a moment I realized that I wasn't punching thing air, I was punching something solid, which disappeared when I opened my eyes shut tight from panic. I wasn't in my house. I was in a place with blue and red tiles covering every square inch. I could hear electricity crackling and could smell the disturbing scent of charred flesh and armor. I was disoriented because I didn't know where I was, and I had a numb feeling all over my body.

"Netto-kun…"

I spun around at my name; Megaman was on the ground, sprawled out limply.

"Megaman!"

I rushed over to the NetNavi's side. His body… parts of his body were in fragments! I'd stooped down to touch him, but the moment before I could, the world seemed to faze out around me. I glanced around myself in a panic to find I was back in my living room, my dad looking at me strangely.

"Megaman! Where's Megaman!? Mega!!"

I cried out in my panic, looking everywhere around the room, but I saw him nowhere. Where was he? Was he dead?!

"Where are you?!"

"Lan! Settle down!"

My dad grabbed my shoulders and shook me. I only felt wet tears running down my face, I wanted to find my NetNavi and make sure he was alright. I didn't need my dad comforting me when I was so worried.

"N-Net-t-to-"

The room was silent as a whisper called out to me. I recognized it right away.

"Mega!"

Immediately I grabbed the PET that had fallen onto the ground sometime during my outburst. Megaman was lying down on the inside of the PET. He forced a weak smile onto his face, but I saw that it must have hurt him as he winced, he was so weak and drained from the battle.

"Megaman!"

"I-I'll be fine. I just need to rest…"

His voice was nearly too faint for me to hear. I was very worried about him, but I could see that the fragments that were scattered over his body were repairing themselves. Megaman had gone into the PET to access the Repair function the device had. He was too wounded to recover outside in the real world and needed immediate attention. I nodded, sending him a grateful smile as he closed his eyes.

"You deserve it."

I wanted to ask him what had happened earlier. I was curious as to what had happened to Elecman who had seemingly disappeared, and how Megaman had gotten away from the NetNavi. But I guessed I'd better think about it to see if I could figure it out, I'd better not worry him when he needed rest. Going up to my room, I put the PET back in its charger, since it would enable the Repairing process to go a little faster without using battery power. That, and Megaman could rest in peace up there in my room. I glanced back at the blue PET, wanting to stay there to wait until he was up again, but I knew that I had to go down and help fix up the neighborhood. It was only a day after Christmas… and I thought I'd be helpful to the families who had gotten attacked by the WWW. Why on Earth did they have to pick the day after Christmas?

'That's just typical of them I guess…' I thought. Of course a criminal organization would ruin a special day like the day after Christmas. I frowned as I came back downstairs, heading towards the door. Dad suddenly came out from the living room, blocking my way with his arm, looking at me like something was wrong. It was like he was inspecting something on my face, or something, and he was creeping me out. 'Uh… okay?' I thought, raising an eyebrow at his actions as he looked me up and down, not letting me escape past him.

"You seem a little different, Lan. Are you alright?"

I raised an eyebrow again at his question. I felt tired, but otherwise nothing else felt different, nothing that I could think of, really.

"A bit tired, but I still have to clean up the WWW's mess. I'm fine."

I slipped past him and went out the door after casting him a confused glance. Now who's the one who was acting differently around here? Who knows… I leaned down and replaced a manhole cover over the sewer drain, then moving onto something else when I was done with that. It was a shame that all the snow had melted… now there would be no chance for any snow days at school. And me and Megaman's sledding day was cancelled, too, after we were looking forward to it so much. I moved on to fixing the dog house. I realized I wasn't really mad at what had happened to the neighborhood, instead I was more focused on figuring out what had happened that could have made Elecman stop attacking Megaman. Thinking back, I remembered that weird blue and red area I'd been in, and Megaman was there, all battered. And what had I been hitting…? I had no idea. Looking up, I realized that I had finished fixing the dog house security system outside our house. My ears were ringing from its alarms sounding, since it had been completely destroyed from the attack. Dad came out, mom following him, standing at the door. I stood up, wiping my dirty hands off onto my shirt.

"Well, I'm off to work again Lan... sorry I have to go so soon before New Year's. I'll try and visit again though, okay?"

"Dad, do you really have to go? Can't you stay longer?"

Dad looked down at me with a sad and longing face. I wanted him to stay longer, but I knew that it was important that he return to his job at SciLabs, there was so much work for him to do there. It was almost like he lived there.

"Sorry Lan. How about you come down and visit me sometime?"

I nodded, and we hugged, before mom and I saw him walk down the street towards the Metro. I saw that he had a container in his hand along with his bag of clothes, mom must have given him her special spaghetti and meat sauce that he loved so much. I went back inside the house, seeing that my job outside was done for the day. I was pretty hungry and tired by now, I realized as I walked towards the kitchen. I pulled out two slices of bread and got out peanut butter and jelly. Mom walked up behind me and startled me, placing a hand over my forehead as she looked at me worriedly. I looked back at her, backing away a little, now a little more creeped out that my parents were acting like something was seriously wrong with me, and weren't telling me what.

"What's wrong?"

I asked her, thoroughly confused. If mom was concerned about me, then something was probably wrong, or something.

"Your dad says he's worried about you, because he noticed something happening to you when your PET dropped on the floor… You should get right up to bed."

I had no idea as to what she was talking about. It was only twelve noon, much too early to get to bed, but I figured I'd better do as she said. I went upstairs after putting the plate I'd used in the sink, trying really hard to think about what possibly could have happened. Dad noticed something happening to me? I opened my bedroom door, coming to sit down on my bed. When did my PET drop down on the floor? I'd definitely have remembered that, but surprisingly, I didn't remember anything about that, other than the fact that it had been on the floor when I'd come out of that weird daydream. I remembered that weird numb feeling, and that odd sense of disorientation I got. Something must have forced Elecman to log out, or get deleted, or whatever had happened. I didn't remember anything happening about that. What was that thing I'd been hitting? I hadn't seen it, and it definitely hadn't been the wall or my dad. I had no idea. Where had I been? It almost seemed too real to be a daydream.

I slipped into bed and closed my eyes. Something somewhere didn't add up.

-normal POV-

Two weary eyes opened, sensing something in front of them. They widened, a manilla folder floating in midair. A sore arm took it in its hands. Opening the cover, there in big bold letters read:

**Project ANNIHILATE THE WORLD!!!!!!**

**First section **

**Subject: Navi ID: Megaman **

**World Three**

::…to be continued…::


	16. chapter 16

/ WHAT?! Count Elec's NetNavi failed to complete its mission?! /

: He did succeed in extracting most of the encoded data, but he was intercepted before he was able to complete the procedure and send it back to us.:

= So where is the information now? =

: I suppose it's wound up in the NetNavi's PET.

: /Hurry up and get the data away and back here! /

= Our NetNavis were deleted, sir. We can't do anything. =

/ I must come up with something... /  
  
**Net nitro necromancing chapter 16; forgiven**

It was all there. All of it.  
  
Everything about what had happened to him when he had been created, up until the present, all his memories, battle strategies, what he'd said and done, even the small bits of information called his 'emotions'.  
  
He sighed, putting the file folder aside, letting it drop onto the ground, a few papers shuffling about within the binding. It was odd and creepy reading something about yourself.  
  
"Netto must never find out about this." he silently swore to himself, as he picked it up again. Closing his eyes, he opened them an instant later, back within the walls of his Operator's room. He held the folder within his gloved hands. The brown-haired teenager was asleep, snoring lightly; he only did that when he was dead tired.  
  
Going over to his desk area, he lifted his small orange toolbox off the ground hidden underneath his desk chair. Opening it, he slid the folder within it. He knew that Netto would only use it if there was an emergency, why, he'd said so himself.  
  
_Megaman: What's in that box down there? _

_Netto: Just tools and stuff I need to use for emergencies... I never use it for anything else.   
_  
It was true. Netto hadn't used it since he'd fixed his PET... all the rest of the time, it just sat there. The only reason it wasn't horribly dusty was because he had to move the box every time he needed to use his chair.  
  
Placing the box back in its usual spot, he turned around. Letting his emerald eyes rest upon the form under the bedcovers, he had a sad expression on his face. Netto turned once on his side, then back again on his back, the bedcovers falling off him slightly. Megaman stepped forward, and placed the covers back over his friend. With a sad smile, he slipped out the door.  
  
-- --  
  
A man with glasses kept his eyes on the personal computer screen in front of him. He was watching with great interest and curiousity as a familiar NetNavi made its way past barrier after barrier, demolishing security programs which so happened to stand in its path with surprising speed.  
  
Doctor Hikari found it hard to keep up with the fast-moving body of data as it blew past many firewalls that were protecting supervisor portals, which led to various thresholds of information. "How interesting that this NetNavi of my son's has so much hidden potential." He muttered softly to himself as he took notes on his clipboard.  
  
-- --  
  
The blue and yellow NetNavi moved like a blur, passing SciLab's many obstacles and transferring himself from portal to portal, looking for what he had come for: the coordinates to the WWW's – no, the World Three's – base.  
  
He sought answers. He needed them. And he was going to get them – even if it meant sabotaging the place he'd once protected with his Operator.  
  
Without blinking, he swiped his arm downwards, sending another firewall offline in shambles. He was almost there. He could see the nearly invisible document holding the coordinates right in the distance, safeguarded by three more security programs. The SciLabs had just gotten hold of the horribly disrepaired file just over the Christmas break. Doctor Hikari hadn't even looked at it yet.  
  
That was too bad.  
  
A serious expression was on Megaman's face as he entered the room, easily totalling the programs with a shot of his buster. He was going to take that document with him, no matter who had seen it or not, no matter what its condition was. He was taking it and leaving back where he'd come from – and heading straight to the location written on the document. He had to get this done and over with now.  
  
He'd become too restless – he'd waited patiently for this to happen, his chance. Someone at the World Three's base knew the whole truth: who his creator was, how he'd been created. Unfortunately, the file that he'd found in his PET did not contain that information. Elecman had been deleted before all the information he'd extracted from him had been decoded (Elecman had extracted the hidden code within Megaman's own programming, changing it into a file). The rest of the information had been deleted along with the electric Navi.  
  
Megaman took the document held on a small pillar in his hands, tucking it safely under his arm. His mission completed, he made for the exit like a rocket, knowing that in a split second SciLabs could be on top of him, preventing his escape. Silently he wondered why there weren't a million NetNavis like the NetBattler Association on top of him by now, when he'd started his task. But he didn't care about that now.  
  
Nearing the portal that would take him away from the SciLab Square, he paused just centimeters in front of it. He turned back to look at the mess he had created, programs lying on the ground useless, firewalls blown away, holes in the ground where a few programs had shot fireballs and shocks at him. He went through the link that was his escape route. Immediately after he vanished, the security programs and firewalls, and other such damages he'd caused were erased, new restored programs and security put in its place as if he'd never been there at all.  
  
After all the destruction he'd caused earlier because of the WWW's mind control, he wouldn't let himself cause damage if he didn't absolutely have to. He'd had to do this to get into SciLabs... but he set things right when he left. Things looked anew like the sabotage had never happened.  
  
He hoped that he could reverse the damage the WWW had caused... it was his fault, it was his duty to finish what he started. He was going to stop them by himself this time, sure that he had enough a chance to destroy his creators alone without Netto helping him this time. He'd had enough of getting him involved in something this big, even though he knew that Netto was more than eager to help him in any way that he could.  
  
Bypassing Netto's webpage, Megaman knew now that he had no other choice but to go alone. How could he possibly tell him that he might not come back from this?  
  
-- --

-- start dream sequence --

_-"The truth... is hard to explain. I know that part of my past, when I was under the World Three. What I don't know is, who gave birth to me..." Megaman shut his eyes for a moment, trying to make the black void in his mind go away. Netto saw this, and seemed to share his NetNavi's need to know. "I don't know who my creator is. I remember nothing about it. It's as if World Three cleared my memory banks of that time. That's probably what happened." he continued. _

_"It must feel awful to not remember who your parents are. It's like having been abandoned at birth and being raised by someone else..." Netto added. Megaman nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, exactly." _

_"So now what we have to do is find the one leader behind World Three. Dr. Wily." Megaman said, eyes gleaming with determination. He was determined to find his identity from the old man. Netto was unsure that Megaman could handle such weight, but knew that they had to go ahead with their plans. So far, they were the only ones who were making a big enough dent in the World Three's forces to make a difference. Plus, they were really big targets, and had most, if not all, of their attention. _

_"I'm going with you, Mega. I don't care what you say or how dangerous it's going to be." Netto said. Megaman looked at his operator from out of his PET. "...I wasn't going to say anything." He said. Netto blinked, then laughed a bit. "Of course you had something to say!" He said. Megaman looked up at him with an honest smile. "I'm glad you're going to be with me. I'm going to really need you, Netto-kun." Were the NetNavi's words. "But remember, you might not like what you're going to hear." -_

--end dream sequence--

----

A refreshed Netto Hikari tossed his bedcovers off himself, having just woken from his two-hour long nap. He didn't really need it... so he ended up waking early. Looking about his room, he sensed that something was wrong. By now, he'd expected his NetNavi's voice to greet him, but the room was silent; the usual "Have a nice nap?" not hitting his ears. He figured that Megaman was still sleeping... But when he got to his desk area, Mega was nowhere to be found within the PET.  
  
He was gone, but a file was there in his place, having been left open, an untitled document within the file's folder. Thinking it was a note explaining where Megaman had gone and why, Netto opened it. The first couple words told him that this wasn't a note like that... it was something far more serious. First, it involved the WWW. When he read more into it... it was about Megaman's creation... his involvement with the WWW.  
  
Skimming the first few pages, it was a documentation of an experiment made by some scientist on Megaman. Megaman's purpose was to destroy the 'net and take over the world. He was made to be the perfect weapon. He came equipped with every ability that the WWW could think of: hacking, sabotage, weapon and combat techniques of the highest caliber.  
  
The documentation noted that Megaman had been under the influence of brain control the entire time, manipulated while the experiments and tests that they had done on him were in effect. He read that without these 'restraints', it was likely that the power that Mega had would have certainly devastated the lab and base where he was being held.  
  
Megaman had been thrown away and brought to that store on the corner where defective PETs were sold to the public by accident, the black chip put in to make sure the NetNavi within was useless to the person who received it when it arrived, and if the NetNavi survived, the black chip would switch to be a controller that would manipulate the Navi.  
  
Netto read on. There was no mention on who Megaman's creator was or how he was created... it was just a log that had been kept while Megaman was in existence.  
  
During the time he was reading this, the phone rang several times. Netto paid no heed to it. A million emotions were flooding his senses as he read what he knew Megaman hadn't wanted him to see. Confusion, hatred, sympathy, truth, doubt, curiousity... just a few named emotions of what he was feeling at that moment. The documentation held his attention, even when the door to his bedroom opened, mom walking in, the portable phone in hand. Netto didn't even look up at her as he took the phone in his free hand, putting it against his ear. His dad was on the other end. But even as he heard his dad's voice, the things he said didn't really register in his mind.  
  
The only thing he caught was this: "- sabotaged the SciLabs." Immediately Netto regained his senses as he let the PET he was holding fall onto his pillow.  
  
"What?" "Megaman was just here, he sabotaged the SciLabs, and took the coordinates to the WWW's base."  
  
Netto furrowed his eyebrows. Normally he'd think, 'Mega did WHAT?!'. Instead, he thought something different. He understood his NetNavi completely because of what he'd just read.  
  
"Please, forgive him. I understand why he's done that."  
  
He hung up the phone after those words, not letting his dad question him or say anything more. Megaman was going to find out who his creator was by going straight to the WWW themselves.  
  
Going to the window, he looked out. Megaman was walking from the Metro, headed towards the school gates. Netto grabbed his PET, dashing out his bedroom door. 

: to be continued :  
  
- code: / Dr. Wily , : Madoi , = Hinoken

AN: this is one of the more confusing chapters, I think, 'cuz I more threw everything in at the last minute.


	17. chapter 17

**Notes: thanks for reviewing, there's more to come. Special thanks to Saito.exe on this one.**  
  
Net Nitro Necromancing Chapter 17; Kamikaze  
  
Netto peered from behind a bush by the school, having gotten close enough to see what Megaman was doing yet remain hidden from sight. His chocolate brown eyes followed his form, fighting down the urge to call out to the NetNavi. He found out by looking into Mega's face that now was not the time to make himself known.  
  
There was something in his eyes... that made Megaman seem different. It was a serious look that spelt danger for whoever the Navi saw. It was as if those eyes were scanners that could identify their targets. But Netto reassured himself that he had to keep following the blue Navi, for whatever reason. His dream had told him so...  
  
_--I'm going with you, Mega. I don't care what you say or how dangerous it's going to be. --  
_  
And by now, he knew that all his dreams were real. Making a move now that Megaman had gone in through the school gates, he hid behind the corner of the wall, peering over it. Megaman was inspecting the back of the fountain, searching a spot behind the statue that a mysterious group had donated. Then he disappeared. He wasn't there anymore! Netto ran forward, thinking that he had vanished into thin air. There was an open door that had been wrenched open in the back of the fountain, and Megaman must have gone through. Netto didn't know about this door or what was behind it since he had come to school.  
  
Going down the long flight of stairs, Netto looked around. He was in what looked like a deserted metro station... only he could hear the sound of a train coming. Megaman was standing near the tracks, his fists clenched as if he was about ready to lose it and bust a hole through the wall right next to him. There were cobwebs in every corner, and the overhead fluorescent lights were flickering on and off. Netto crept behind a pillar, waiting to see what his NetNavi would do next.  
  
A beam of light broke through the darkness, illuminating the corridors and columns of the train station. The train came with a loud noise, running down on the tracks, a grinding noise sounding as the brakes were applied. Megaman stood ready, his expression unchanging, fists clenched tighter, perhaps warming up for the battle to come. Netto inched closer towards the train so that he could jump on fast enough that Megaman wouldn't see him.  
  
The train finally stopped, the doors sliding open with a single creak. Megaman walked forward with a smooth stride, entering through the doorway. Now that the Navi's back was turned, Netto rushed for the other car, throwing himself through the doors before they closed just two seconds later. He scrambled under the seats, Megaman just a few feet away from him. Though it had appeared the be a two-car train, the two cars were actually connected as one. There were just two doors. Netto hoped that Megaman hadn't seen him, but he knew that he had nothing to worry about. The NetNavi was busy kicking and punching the air, definitely getting himself warmed up. He really was planning on taking on the World Three by himself.  
  
'It's definitely weird to hide from your own Navi...' Netto thought as he huddled under the seat, hugging his knees close to make himself even more well-hidden. He had no idea how long this ride would take, but there was nothing he could do about how uncomfortable he was crunched under there. At least it wasn't as dirty as he thought... for a deserted train station, one would think the train would be horribly dirty too.  
  
He watched Megaman attentively, tracking his every move as the train went along at a fast speed, sometimes shaking so badly that one would lose their balance standing up. Megaman just stood still, as if he were a statue, eventually breaking out a few fighting moves. The sudden movements of the train didn't affect his stance at all. Not even when the brakes suddenly applied themselves, effectively putting the car to an abrupt halt. Netto thought he'd see Megaman fly across the car at the sudden jolt, but nope. Nothing was going to blow him back, that's for sure.  
  
The door opened with a loud squeak, a cool breeze blowing into the car from someplace outside. Netto couldn't see where they were, he was too far below the window, but he figured that this was where their stop was. Megaman had already marched out, he guessed; the Navi wasn't in the car anymore. At least, that's what he thought at the moment. Crawling out towards the middle of the car, Netto confirmed that Megaman was not in the car, but outside, where the sounds of a fight had broken out.  
  
The air was filled with sword slashing and gunshots for a few brief minutes. Netto carefully looked both ways before he got out of the train car, noticing that the train was getting ready to leave again, wherever it was going. Looking out, he saw a dark wasteland outside the station, where there were piles of machinery, old security robots that looked newly destroyed. Like, seconds ago destroyed. A large smoking hole the size of the palm of his hand had been planted in the middle of one robot's chest. There were plenty others, even those that'd had their heads blown clear off. Netto guessed that there had been viruses and programs behind the robot's controls, or maybe even NetNavis in some of the more advanced models.  
  
Netto looked forward. A huge looming fortress stood perhaps a mile away from where he was currently at. An ominous skull was placed at the center, giving it a dangerous, forbidding look. It looked a lot like that weird castle from the show He-Man he used to watch back when he was little. Only this was more high-tech. 'So this is where the World Three's base is...?' Netto thought as he got nearer.  
  
When he got close enough to see the locked gates, he saw that Megaman was there. His hands were curled around the bars, as if he were looking in at the base. There were many more robots and stuff behind the gates, but they hadn't noticed that anyone was in the area.Megaman didn't seem to hear him let alone notice him as he closed the distance between them.  
  
"Megaman!" Netto called his name.  
  
But the blue and yellow NetNavi remained silent, arms rigid, hands still placed on the bars. Who knows what was going on inside his mind at that moment, now with all that stuff about the File going on.  
  
"...go back where you came from."  
  
The voice was deadly serious as it pierced through Netto's very being. It made him feel like he'd never known Megaman at all, as if the Navi didn't remember him. Megaman raised his buster to the lock, releasing a small shot, frying the lock holding the gates shut right off. Then he sped away, leaving Netto standing there, stunned. Shaking his head, brown strands of hair rustling, Netto put a determined smile back on his face as he too stepped through the gates, breaking into a run.

Running forward, he followed the rapidly disappearing form of his NetNavi. The security bots were closing in on them fast, and some had leapt right on top of Megaman. But none of them seemed to want to attack Netto, as if by some internal command that they were not to hurt the boy or approach him. Megaman swung around, flinging the bots off of him until they had let go, then readied his buster, a purple aura surrounding the gun. He let loose a spray of shots as if it were a barrage of bullets, stunning the bots. There was no time to destroy all of them now.

In front of the giant door leading to the entrance of the WWW base, Megaman pushed against it, throwing his whole weight against the heavy metal door. The door creaked open a crack with his effort, Netto still was running to keep up to his speed. He was about a mile behind, and needed to stop to catch his breath soon. Megaman was a very fast runner, and he'd proved it, too. Walking into the base, there were long stone corridors, high-tech equipment sticking out of the walls. They looked like projectors or cannons, but they weren't operating at all now.

Netto stuck his head in after stopping outside the base, leaning his body against the wall as he slumped there, breathing heavily. He had to keep going, and make sure that he was with Megaman to see what happened, also, to decide what he could do to help. What if Mega needed assistance in defeating the WWW? But... he would have asked for help if he hadn't been sure he could do it on his own...

Netto's eyes widened. Of course! Megaman had come here alone... without telling him... because he thought he wasn't going to come back alive. Mega was ready to give his life as a sacrifice to make sure he knew the answers he needed, and to make sure WWW was put out of action. This was a _kamikaze_ mission!


	18. the metal beads

Author's Notes: I believe that the '-hakase' on the end of Wily means 'Professor' or 'Doctor'. Just to clear that up, since I use it in this chapter.  
Also, I'm changing Netto's name to just Netto, instead of Lan and making it a confusing mess.  
  
**Chapter 18; The Metal Beads  
**  
[back where we left off...]  
  
_Netto ran forward, following the rapidly disappearing form of his NetNavi. The security bots were closing in on them fast, and some had leapt right on top of Megaman. But none of them seemed to want to attack Netto, as if by some internal command that they were not to hurt the boy or approach him. Megaman swung around, flinging the bots off of him until they had let go, then readied his buster, a purple aura surrounding the gun. He let loose a spray of shots as if it were a barrage of bullets, stunning the bots. There was no time to destroy all of them now.  
  
In front of the giant door leading to the entrance of the WWW base, Megaman pushed against it, throwing his whole weight against the heavy metal door. The door creaked open a crack with his effort, Netto still was running to keep up to his speed. He was about a mile behind, and needed to stop to catch his breath soon. Megaman was a very fast runner, and he'd proved it, too. Walking into the base, there were long stone corridors, high-tech equipment sticking out of the walls. They looked like projectors or cannons, but they weren't operating at all now.  
  
Netto stuck his head in after stopping outside the base, leaning his body against the wall as he slumped there, breathing heavily. He had to keep going, and make sure that he was with Megaman to see what happened, also, to decide what he could do to help. What if Mega needed assistance in defeating the WWW? But... he would have asked for help if he hadn't been sure he could do it on his own...  
  
Netto's eyes widened. Of course! Megaman had come here alone... without telling him... because he thought he wasn't going to come back alive. Mega was ready to give his life as a sacrifice to make sure he knew the answers he needed, and to make sure WWW was put out of action. This was a kamikaze mission!  
_  
"He's always sacrificing himself for me..." Netto mused to himself as he dashed inside, but he didn't see where Megaman had gone. There was only a straight long corridor though, and there was no other way he could have went, so he followed in that direction. He could hear and see strange things that looked a lot like Metaurs and Spikeys running down the corridor with him, running in the same direction Megaman had gone. But that was impossible... right? He wasn't in the Net where programs and viruses existed. Just to make sure he wasn't daydreaming, he kicked one of the Metaurs running next to him. It sailed into the air, crashing smack into the wall, then getting up angry it looked about but couldn't seem to find its attacker.  
  
Netto kept running with a new realization. The viruses couldn't see him, but he could see them, and from this example could fight them, too. He'd thought they were just projections from the cyber world, but in this case it was Netto that was the projection that could take physical form. He bet that the World Three had planned all this, but he couldn't be sure. Maybe they'd done this so that he would see his NetNavi be deleted before his very eyes or something.  
  
He could see a room with bright lights just ahead of him. Somehow the viruses disappeared in fragments the moment they touched the lights... perhaps, it was a barrier that was keeping them out of that room. Who knew? All Netto knew in that moment was that something was going on... A gunshot rang out, echoing off the walls, silencing everything. Netto stood still at the doorway to the room, Megaman standing in front of a very large green virus that looked like a huge cricket. He could practically feel Megaman's anger all the way from where he was standing, perhaps a half a mile away from the NetNavi and virus. It was a good thing he was so distanced then... a showdown was taking place.  
  
He glanced around the rest of the room, seeing pure white walls and floors, and ceiling... okay, so there was a lot of white. There appeared to be no window for a control room, so there wasn't anyone who was making the virus attack them or anything from there. Looking around more, Netto caught a glint of metal on the floor by Megaman's feet. It was the two rings and broken beads from the necklace he'd given him for Christmas...  
  
**Megaman's POV**  
  
He'd come here as fast as he could. Coming to a halt in the middle of the huge room that acted as a battlefield (a war room), a monster-sized virus appeared about three feet away from him. Megaman could feel already that this virus was the one the World Three was throwing out to crush him with. It was a power that could crush the opponent facing it into the ground, it was so heavilly pressured. It had the kind of power that said, 'we're not fooling around with this one'. So all Megaman had to do was overpower this virus. The blue and yellow Navi kept in mind that the World Three was always expected to have a backup plan.  
  
He charged towards the virus (the Life Virus, incidentally), his arm buster fully charged on his hand glowing an eerie purple-reddish color. The Life Virus released a pinpoint shot from the center of its red core, aiming for the NetNavi's head in a fatal headshot. Megaman threw himself a little bit sideways, avoiding the shot... which hit his most prized possession instead.  
  
With a sound much like the jangle of bells upon a floor, the necklace fell, beads of metal and rings of silver falling everywhere, scattering, from where it had once been hanging from Megaman's neck. The room was enveloped with a deadly silence as an oddly calm Megaman stooped down to pick up the broken piece of jewelry, clutching it in his hand. Pressing it against his heart, dark shadows over his eyes had formed.  
  
"Netto-kun...!" Megaman let out a silent scream of anguish, glaring up at the Life Virus, slowly, who was oblivious to the Navi's deathwish. as it began to fire random barrages of fire and plasma.  
  
The green virus barely had time to realize that its opponent had practically drilled a hole through it.  
  
Megaman stood behind the Life Virus, which had been ten times his size, a gaping and smoking hole made right through it. The enraged Navi turned around, and pounced on the virus's head, brutally pounding his fists into its body, until it disappeared in fragments, roaring in pain.  
  
"Netto-kun! Netto-kun!!" the name kept being shouted within the corridors of the now berserk Navi's mind, repeating, repeating. The loss of the necklace made him go overboard...  
  
Megaman landed on the ground, menacingly growling, and began tearing down the walls, revealing a hidden room behind the war room. From there, Netto could see the Navi's eyes were stained crimson red. Like the demon that had possessed him before.  
  
**"Give me what is rightfully mine"** the demon's voice sounded... demanding something that no one but Megaman himself could guess.  
  
_"Get out of my mind!!"_ Megaman shouted back in protest, pushing against the demon's influence. The demon's force behind its demands was hurting him badly.  
  
"MEGAMAN!!!"  
  
Netto had screamed, running across the room to reach his NetNavi, the banging upon the wall becoming a deafening noise to the ears. Upon laying a hand on his shoulder, Netto was picked up in the air by his shirt collar, dangling in front of Megaman's glaring eyes. The demon had control now... he could see Mega fighting with it behind the glaze over his eyes. An extreme fear passed over Netto as he felt Megaman was losing the battle, but found himself being lowered down from the air, being put down on the floor again. The Navi's eyes were now their original green again, as he felt himself being hugged like he was a lifeline. Megaman's hands were gripping his arms, sometimes lightly gripping him and sometimes rather tightly, enough to be a little uncomfortable. Netto shrugged the fear off, making it disappear, as they pulled away, their eyes meeting one another's. Megaman's mouth opened, as he spoke:  
  
"Netto-kun, what are you _doing_ here?!"  
  
Netto couldn't keep himself from sweatdropping. "That's it? I thought you were going to flip out at me since I'd followed you here!"  
  
Megaman blinked, then smiled playfully. "It didn't cross my mind until now, actually. Thanks for bringing that up!" He pounced on Netto, surprising him, and began tickling his sides until the both of them ended up on the floor, trying to catch their breath after a tickle-war, joking around as if what had just happened between the demon and him had never occurred. Their eyes met, and they knew that their little reuniting moment was over. They still had to find out who was behind all this World Three business.  
  
The two looked through the bent-in metal of the wall, which had peeled away under the pressure of Megaman's punches. Operator and NetNavi saw a dark room packed with computers and hardware holding all the controls to the World Three base. Muffled cries could be heard, but nothing could be seen where they were standing outside, where they had to squint to see inside. Megaman was the first to shove Netto inside the room through the hole about half their size, then he came in second, after him. The two looked around, back-to-back, seeing mostly computers and hard drives the size of a small apartment each. Most of them were in ruins piled in a corner, and the ones in use looked to be in excellent condition.  
  
"Mmmff! Mmmmmfffff!!"  
  
Netto bent his head towards the direction of that muffled voice, a person probably gagged or something and held hostage. Actually, there were several muffled voices. Megaman swiped a flashlight from a nearby desk littered with an impossible amount of papers, and turned it on, only to realize it was a very dim light. It was able to shed a little bit of light in that direction, but it was enough for Megaman to see that it was all three of Netto's 'friends'. Meiru, Yai, and Dex were tied up in plant vines in the center of the room, black bandanas tied around their faces, preventing them from screaming their lungs out for someone to come help them. Netto had a frown on his face as he looked at them. The mastermind must have seen him with them, and thought that they were friends of his, then made them hostages so that they could be used against him.  
  
"Wily-hakase."  
  
Megaman was looking straight ahead into the darkness, past his Operator's squirming 'friends'. Netto was trying to free them, although he didn't think of them as his friends.  
  
"I see you've found me!"  
  
The voice of an old man met all their ears. A quick clanging of metal upon the floor sounded, and within an instant, the entire room was lit up by light. Netto quickly covered his eyes, letting out a small gasping sound as he looked up, gradually readjusting from darkness to the light. The computers in operation around them came to life, giving of a soft hum to add to the background.  
  
At the end of the room towards the wall, there was a chair that was designed like a throne. An aging old man with a long, bushy moustache and liver spots on his head sat, his hand clutching a metal cane that was touching the floor. A skull was placed atop the cane fancily.  
  
"Either you let me go, or all your little friends will die!"  
  
He pointed his cane shakily at Mayl, Dex, and Yai. Megaman looked at Wily- hakase with disgust.  
  
"Neither me or my Operator care about them." "...No, Mega... though I can't forgive them, it wouldn't be right."  
  
Netto had protested that, much to the Navi's surprise. The confused Megaman glanced at Netto, then turned fully around to face him.  
  
"I thought you would hate them more for what they've done to you."  
  
Netto shook his head. He would have said more, had it not been for the realization that was suddenly dawning on him. If they let Wily-hakase go, then Megaman wouldn't be able to find out the truth about himself... but at the very least, he could maybe clear up who had created him before the old professor escaped. Netto walked forward, to stand just behind his serious NetNavi. Mayl looked out at them with wide and confused eyes. She thought: 'They're going to let the mastermind behind the World Three escape?! They've caused us so much damage though!'  
  
"Fine. I'll let you go..." the Navi paused, "if you tell me who created me."  
  
The old professor had a cruel and sly look in his eyes as he faced the NetNavi with his little Operator behind him, ready to support him at all times. NetNavis were supposed to be ruled over to control the world, he believed. The Navi he'd trained to be a mass murderer had turned soft in his escape, it seemed.  
  
"That seems fair." the old professor sneered. Suddenly, the whole room seemed to rumble, as the floor under Professor Wily was lifted upwards. A giant jet was being set into place over him. "I could give two hoots of who created you, but I can tell you this! I certainly didn't!"  
  
"Hey! Come back here!" Megaman brought out his buster and aimed, ready to blast the crazy old lunatic out of the sky, but he was out of range. Netto watched him escape from where he stood, but saw a glint of something falling from the sky at his angle. It was a bomb!  
  
"NO!!!" He dove for the others, shielding Mayl's body with his own for protection from the bomb that was headed swiftly to the ground. Megaman had seen the bomb that Wily-hakase had dropped on them, and breathed a curse as he took out a battlechip he'd taken from Netto's pack, in order to protect his Operator. "Barrier chip, slot in!!"  
  
The next thing anyone knew, the whole place was engulfed in a wide explosion, detonating all the computers and information systems that held all of the World Three's plans and future missions. All the other equipment, including the chair, was burnt to a crisp in an instant. It was obvious that Wily-hakase used such measures to accomplish these things, to 'cover his tracks'.  
  
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, there were crackling flames everywhere. Megaman was standing protectively in front of Netto and his friends, where he had activated the Barrier chip just in time so that none of them were harmed. He lowered his arms where he'd been holding up the protective aura, letting the shield drop, the danger over. He'd wanted to protect just Netto on purpose, since he hated the three, but the Barrier chip had covered them all.  
  
Netto looked up at his Navi appreciatively before turning back to Mayl. Reaching over, he took off her bandana and the vines binding her. The moment he did, she shot up angrily, nearly knocking him over in the process, the others also standing up with her.  
  
"Netto you idiot!! Why'd you let the mastermind of the World Three, of all people, escape?!"  
  
Netto covered his ears at her screaming. He couldn't stand someone yelling at such a high volume right in front of him, almost screaming into his ear. But he met her angry and furious eyes anyway.  
  
"You should be more appreciative than that." Netto said unexpectedly.  
  
All three of them gaped at him with wide eyes. Mayl opened and shut her mouth a few times, saying the first letters that would form a sentence, but never quite made it. Dex shuffled his feet a little, looking shocked, and Yai had almost figured it out. Since Yai was the one who knew all the gossip, she also knew about Netto and Mayl's relationship, and what had happened between them when they broke up. Still, Netto wasn't the type of person to hold any kind of grudge, and he was the nicest kid in their class.  
  
Megaman watched all of Netto's friends apologize to and thank his Operator after they got over their shock, then they left, following one another out of the ruins of the base. At least they admitted that they did owe him something for saving their butts, and at least they started to figure out that maybe they'd hurt Netto too much. But anyway, finally, Netto was getting the appreciation he deserved.  
  
'I guess...' Megaman thought, as he saw Netto try his best at a glare, making tons of silly faces behind Mayl's back, 'this means that he's done with Mayl... even after what he'd gone through because of her... it took him this long to get over her...'  
  
Netto moved forward towards Megaman, the others having disappeared and leaving the two with some time to themselves. Netto's face, set in a frown, became a look of sadness and sorrow.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mega. I shouldn't have come here. I just got in the way of you, and now since the mastermind is gone you can't find out who your creator is..."  
  
Megaman sighed, uncrossing his arms where they'd been across his chest. He shook his head, and Netto peered up at him.  
  
"It's okay, I guess. I am upset, but it's not your fault. I just can't seem to keep you away from me." Megaman joked. "But I did learn something, I know that Wily-hakase didn't create me. I now know that I have to search someplace else."  
  
"Are you sure...?" Netto asked him. "Yeah," Megaman said, reassuring his Operator that he'd forgiven him. The two of them started walking towards the exit, "so let's go home... I bet the Official Netbattlers will come any second from now, and see what they can dig up in this mess to find out what happened."  
  
As soon as Megaman had said that, they heard helicopters and police sirens coming in from the distance, most definitely the Official Netbattlers like he'd said, and maybe a little of the Press for some exclusive news coverage. If mom saw Netto at the World Three base, he'd be in major trouble! The two of them broke out into a run when they realized that they were closing in on them fast, not exactly wanting to be seen on the news all over the world and questioned heavily by the Officials.  
  
...  
  
Later on, back home, Megaman and Netto were sitting on the swingsets in ACDC park, simply enjoying the peace and time they had with each other, while taking sips of their pink lemonades that mom had made for them. Netto smiled at his Navi, who smiled back. All kinds of thoughts were running through Megaman's head.  
  
'...he doesn't know that I... but how can I possibly tell him...?' the blue and yellow NetNavi argued with himself.  
  
...in Mayl's house...

Mayl simply looked at her PET briefly, sitting on the edge of her bed. Roll was still there, of course. But the two of them had grown apart, after Mayl had lied to Netto about going out with another guy and not liking him anymore. Apparently, Roll was very protective about feelings, and she'd known that Mayl actually loved Netto a lot more than she thought she did. So, the two of them had exploded at each other, of course.  
  
Mayl regretted that a lot. She missed having Roll as her best friend, and she knew that she had a lot of apologizing to do. That was the first time that Netto had ever said something like that to her before. "You should be a little more appreciative than that." It was just like what she'd done to him earlier. All of that could have been avoided. Now she'd lost her childhood friend whom she'd known for years, and her NetNavi, too.  
  
...back at the swingset...

Netto glanced at Megaman, who looked to be in really deep thought. He looked troubled over something, and he'd only smiled when he'd they'd exchanged smiles. They should be happy now that their problems were over. The World Three's base was annihilated, after all.  
  
"Mega, what's bugging you?" he asked. The serious NetNavi looked like he was struggling over something serious in his mind, trying to find a solution to a major problem.  
  
"...Your bandana. The Officials might find out who had been there at their base."  
  
Netto blinked. "What are you talking about? No one saw us leave there."  
  
Megaman shook his head. "You left your bandana behind there."  
  
"No, I didn't." Netto said, "it's right here-" He stopped short as he ran a hand through his hair. There wasn't the familiar feeling of cloth, and nothing was holding back the wild strands from his face. "Uh-oh..." his eyes widened. This was serious now.  
  
"But how could the Official Netbattlers figure out anything from my bandana? Unless they do DNA testing and search it for loose strands of hair. It'd be impossible any other way." Netto said, as if to reassure himself that no one would be getting in trouble.  
  
"They can match the symbol to the identity symbols of NetNavis in their database, and find the Operator, who would be you, as well."  
  
Netto paled at what Megaman had informed him. Certainly lots of Navis had seen Megaman while he'd been on the net, and he then would have been listed in the database, either by the SciLab Hospital he'd admitted him into when they'd first met, or by any information gatherer.  
  
"Did you notice when it fell off?"  
  
Netto pressed his NetNavi for an answer from his memory. Megaman put a finger to his chin, recalling exactly what he remembered.  
  
"Right when you leaped in front of Mayl to save her."  
  
Netto visibly relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief.  
  
"It probably burned up in the explosion then." he said.  
  
Megaman thought about it, then nodded, putting a bright smile on his face. He believed that his Operator was right after all, and the Officials wouldn't be able to come up with any clues.  
  
"There's nothing to worry about, Mega. Really. So... are you up for a party? Let's celebrate!" Netto said, putting a wide smile on his face. They ought to celebrate their victory. "As long as there's pizza!" Megaman said, putting on a wide smile on his face as well. His Operator really did know how to make him feel better. But... the bandana thing wasn't what had been on his mind...  
  
...  
  
Meanwhile, at the ruins of the World Three's base, the Official Netbattlers were busy examining and excavating whatever they could find in the rubble of the criminal organization. An Official scurried up a heap of rubble where the current top elite with them was watching over them.  
  
"Sir! What do you think we should do with this?"  
  
The Official handed the elite Netbattler what he'd managed to find. The elite, who was clothed in a black and red vest and camouflage cargo pants, turned the singed blue bandana with a NetNavi's symbol over in his hand. He then nodded, having briefly examined it.  
  
"I'll take care of this." he said, sending the Official back off to work with the others.  
  
Now that he was left alone from the others, a voice spoke from the red PET at his waist. "Enzan-sama, what will we do with the evidence?" The elite Official Netbattler, Enzan Ijuiin, looked into his PET at his shaded NetNavi. "We'll use it to find what we need, Blues."  
  
Then, Enzan resumed monitoring the work being done. A soft breeze blew across the devastated piece of land, sending his short black and white hair in a flurry of strands.  
  
"Hai, Enzan-sama."  
  
**to be continued...**


	19. you're not me

Author's Notes: If it wasn't for Spellcaster Hikaru then this fic would have been abandoned... Also I'm using a few lines from the YuGiOh movie song "You're Not Me".

**Net Nitro chapter 19; You're Not Me**

It was a dreary, dark day for Netto Hikari and his Navi Megaman.exe. The skies had suddenly opened up, scattering rain with fast winds. Netto was watching the rain from the balcony at school, kept safe and dry behind the tempered-glass windows, waiting for the storm to pass.

"Netto-kun, how about doing your homework while you wait?" Megaman's voice came from the PET. Netto groaned, leaning against the railing. "I already did it back in study hall Megaman...but there's one problem left and I can't solve it! I hate math. I'm no good at it."

"That's not true! You're getting a B in the course, sheesh! Which one are you having problems with?" Megaman asked. Netto got out his notebook (there was nothing better to do anyway... he had the period off since he finished the test everyone was taking early). "Uh... 5 x 10 x 45 x 32 x pi..." he drawled off.

Megaman's eyes widened. "And they expect you to solve THAT without a calculator? They're nuts. I suppose they want the work shown, too, right...?" Netto got ready with a pen in hand and an empty page.

"5 x 10 = 50. Then 50 x 45 = 2250, and 2250 x 32 = 72,000, and 72,000 x pi...(3.141592654) = 226194.6711." Netto furiously jotted down what his NetNavi had told him, reciting it back to him to make sure he'd gotten it right.

"That's a lot of numbers..." Netto laughed a little, closing his notebook and sticking his pen in his ear so it laid on top of it. His hair was everywhere, spikes flying every which way, unbound by the usual bandana. Megaman nodded his head. Both of them fell silent again. Obviously this day, nothing much was going on, and nothing either of them tried to do lasted.

**_{ You think I've got it all, everyone thinks I've got it made }_**

"Megaman...?"

"Yeah?"

"I miss my friends..."

Megaman sighed at the longing tone to Netto's voice. This had been going on for a while since the World Three base had been destroyed... his Operator had become lonely.

"...Why?"

Netto looked at his PET.

"Why what?"

"Why do you miss them?"

"...because they gave me attention."

**_{ Well how come my only friends are the ones I pay }_**

"They would only come to me if they needed something, so it was kind of like I was paying for their attention. But still, my sacrifices were nothing compared to that feeling of being needed." Netto paused to chuckle. "With the excitement of World Three gone I don't have any attention at all anymore. Who cares, I mean? Dex, Yai, and Maylu don't want anything to do with me. They hate me for what I said."

"I wish I could take it all back." he continued. "Maybe... switch into someone else's shoes. I'm the only one who's alone."

**_{ No one understands what I would do to change my life for just one day }_**

Megaman was quiet for a moment.

"You can't just do that Netto-kun... sure, it'd be great if that would happen, if you could turn back time and all, but it's too late. Even if you completely change... your friends will still look at you the same way."

Netto backed up a bit from the windows. The rain was still pounding hard against the glass, the trees outside gradually losing their leaves.

"No one can understand my despair. There won't be anyone else out there who'd give me attention for who I really am. Just people like Dex, Yai, Maylu..." he muttered.

**_{ Don't say if I were you or tell me what to do_**

**_or how things would be if you were in my shoes_**

'_**cuz you're not me }**_

"If I were you, I'd just forget about them." came a voice from the left.

Netto turned towards that direction, and saw Tohru Hikawa, who'd just transferred in a couple days ago. The two shook hands briefly. Of course, Tohru had heard rumors about Netto from Yai and Dex, so Netto and him had a shaky friendship at best. Netto gave him a small smile.

"I know. It's just not easy, Tohru."

Netto absolutely hated it when people said things like 'If I were you I'd do this' and people who described stuff when they had no experience about the situation he was in. But he knew Tohru was just trying to help him out a little.

Tohru smiled and turned, clutching his umbrella as he headed for the school doors.

"Sort it out soon, Lan!" Netto waved goodbye as his brownish-grey haired classmate disappeared through the doorways. A frown placed itself back on Netto's face. His 'friends' were ruining everything for him. He could have made a friend with Tohru... he seemed pretty nice.

**_{ Yeah, you'll never be... Why can't you see that you're not me }_**

Netto saw that the rain wasn't going to be letting up anytime soon. But he couldn't really get his PET wet... and he didn't want to shove it in his backpack either. Megaman was his best friend. No, he was...

"Netto-kun! Hey, you're zoning out again!" Megaman called from the PET. Netto realized that he'd been staring at the phone in the lobby for a while. That was the first place he'd jacked in Megaman.

"Heh, sorry... I'm zoning out a lot today." Netto laughed lightheartedly. Megaman's look of concern was still on his face, in his eyes. His hands were placed on his hips as if he meant business.

"What's bothering you Netto-kun? For real this time?"

Netto gulped. He couldn't resist anymore. The despair was killing him.

"You're the problem Megaman!" he admitted. Megaman's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

"Wh-what?!" he sputtered. It took him an instant before his shock disappeared. "Because I'm a reject Navi, right? I cause too many problems? I'm no good for you? Is that it?"

"No!" Netto shook his head wildly before looking his Navi in the eyes. "I can't believe you still think all that stupid crap is true! That's not it at all! See, Megaman, you're... perfect."

Megaman stared at his Operator.

Netto was blushing nervously. "Uh... I... What I mean is..."

"I know what you mean, Netto-kun." Megaman paused. He spoke in a serious tone.

"We need to talk."

Netto opened his mouth to say something, but it caught in his throat. He'd slipped up back there and said something that ending up coming out the wrong way, and maybe Megaman was going to scold him and get mad at him for saying that. But... he meant the words in a way that surprised him. Therefore, doing that couldn't have been all that bad of him to do.

"What? Right now?" Netto voiced his surprise.

"Someplace private."

Netto paled. "Wait until we get home. There's too many eavesdroppers."

"No. Not home."

Megaman had shaken his head, fiercely insisting it. Netto blinked... just what were they going to talk about anyway? "We can talk about it here, Megaman. There's no one around yet, besides, the periods aren't going to be over for a while yet." Netto said. Megaman nodded his head slowly.

"What do you – er, we – have to talk about?" Netto inquired as he sat down on the floor by the wall. He looked down at his PET, attentive, to hear his Navi speak.

"First, you have to tell me what's been bugging you. You've been zoning out too much lately, and it's almost gotten you in trouble with the Principal. Plus, you just haven't been your normal self since we'd gotten back from the base."

Netto sighed. Megaman was just worried about him, and didn't want to scream at him after all.

"I just miss my friends. I don't want to... it's just that, I regret a lot. I want things to change, Mega... I'm so sick of this I'd do anything to change it all back to when I was happier."

Megaman frowned sadly. "You don't mean that though, Netto-kun... I know you don't." Netto raised his head from where it had fallen down on his chest. "And how do you know?" he inquired.

"They're the cause of your despair! Can't you see that?!" Megaman exclaimed. "You wouldn't want anything from them because then they could manipulate you. You don't want that."

"Then if you understand me so well, then tell me what I really want." Netto tested him. It was obvious that something had set him off.

"You want someone you can trust who loves you for who you are and not for what you have to offer." Megaman had said that plainly.

"Yeah, that's it. So tell me who would want to do that?" How could he believe that there was someone out there who would treat him that way?

"That's what I have to talk to you about." Megaman said. Netto nodded, letting him take his turn. "I know that this could get you in a lot of trouble and pain, Netto-kun... but I have to tell you this. Are you willing to listen? Please..."

From the way Megaman was acting, his head against his chest hiding his eyes, this was like a life-or-death thing. "I'm listening, Mega." It took a while for Megaman to speak. It was as if he was deciding if he should tell him whatever was on his mind or not. Netto silently urged his Navi on.

"Ever since I came here... ever since I met you, Netto-kun... I've felt for you."

Netto blinked. "As a friend?" It was all he could come up with at the moment.

"No... not just that."

Realization hit Netto like a ton of bricks.

"I know. You love me."

Megaman lifted his eyes up, connecting with his Operator's.

"Could you tell that all along?" Megaman asked.

Netto shook his head. "I never did... I never even noticed until you've told me now."

The blue and yellow Navi smiled a bit. Netto did, making the both of them feel better.

"So... now that you know that I love you... tell me what you feel." Megaman brought up in curiousity. Netto placed a finger under his chin, trying to put his emotions and feelings into place for once. It was impossible – they seemed to be everywhere, as mixed up as alphabet soup. He wrinkled his face in so many complicated ways that Megaman couldn't help but laugh.

"I don't know... I can't quite place it." Netto said. Megaman looked at him. "I mean... I don't understand my feelings enough to explain them to someone else..."

Megaman nodded in understanding. "That's okay. But when you do figure it out, will you tell me?" Netto nodded in response. "You bet I will."

The school bell rang suddenly, signaling the end of the school day. Netto got up and ran outside just before the usual stampede of classmates ran out the doors heading for home, avoiding getting run over. Megaman watched as Netto saw his friends off through the gates from afar. The expression on Netto's face was different, but he couldn't quite place it. It wasn't the usual longing expression, it looked more like a 'getting over it' kind of thing... the good thing was that he was smiling.

"Let's get home, Megaman. I left my journal there, and I want to write in there." Netto said as he put his binder over his head, so that his hair would be kept dry. He held Megaman under his vest, making it so that the Navi could still look up at him. "Just how many pages do you have left in there? You've been writing an awful lot in that."

"I've got 20 pages left. It's only got a hundred, you know. That's not a lot." Megaman fell over at the news. "ONLY 20 pages! What on earth do you write about?!" he exclaimed in shock. Netto smiled, wagging his finger in front of the PET. "It's a _private_ journal, Mega, so I'm not supposed to tell you!" Netto made his way down the sidewalk towards home. "But... most of the entries are about you, so... do you want to read it when we get home?"

Megaman blushed a bright-red tomato color. Netto wrote about him in his journal! It was like hearing that a girl was writing about him in her diary! Oh wait, that was the same thing as this. He was the figment of Netto's entries. But none of the entries would be anything bad, right? Netto wouldn't write about **that**... could he?

..._tbc!_


	20. nettokun's journal

**A/N: Two words: HOLY COWS.**

**Net Nitro, Chapter 20; Netto-kun's Journal**

In a dark room within a hotel, there were sounds of someone typing rapidly on a laptop computer. A pair of eyes watched the screen as information was called up, pictures and text flickering off and on within nanoseconds. A few sharp clicks of the mouse were heard before the user of the computer shut it down, taking it under an arm, and walking towards the door. The light from the outside hall would have blinded anybody who'd just emerged from a room of darkness. Anybody, except Enzan Ijuiin.

"I've got the information, Blues." A serious-looking Enzan said as he walked down the hall. He lifted the tattered blue bandana up to take a good look at it again. "This material item was handcrafted by the Hikari family of ACDC town. Interestingly, the NetNavi symbol is the same as the Navi Megaman's, who belongs to Netto 'Lan' Hikari." He peered down to look at his PET. "Draw up a map of ACDC, and pinpoint their house."

"Yes, Enzan-sama." the usual cool voice responded within the PET as Blues did as he was told to. Drawing up a map was easy. Soon, the house in question appeared on the screen, and he displayed it, without questioning his Operator's actions.

Enzan looked at the map on the screen, as if drawing it into his memory. He nodded, silently telling Blues to put it away.

"We're going to give this Netto Hikari a house call."

-- -- Netto's House -- --

Netto had just gotten home when the rain that had been going on for hours drizzled to a stop. "Just my luck!" he exclaimed, stepping in through the doorway and taking off his soaking wet shoes and socks. He looked like a drowned rat, and he'd been told that by everyone who managed to see the boy running like a blur for home. Clutching his PET and taking his backpack with him, he went upstairs, going past his mom who was watching soap operas on tv.

Netto walked into his bedroom, and the first thing he did was to change out of his wet clothes and into his pajamas. He wanted to be comfortable, so that was what he had in mind. He looked up, and saw that Megaman had already come out of the PET, and was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, and looking the other way. Obviously it was because he didn't want to watch him get dressed. Netto chuckled to himself, and went over to his bed, where he collapsed on top of it lazily. He chucked the journal underneath his pillow at the Navi, and Megaman caught it in midair. The blue and yellow journal had only a few pages left at the back, and he knew that what was left was much less than just 20 pages. More like 5.

"You go ahead and read it, Mega," Netto said with a big yawn as he pulled a sheet over himself, "I'm tired! I'm gonna take a nap." With that, he put his head down on the pillow.

"Are you absolutely SURE I can read this?" Megaman asked. Netto turned over and looked at him, a sleepy look on his face. "Megaman... if you don't want to read it then don't." He then turned back over and promptly went back to sleep. Megaman looked down at the book in his hands. He felt like he was going to violate Netto's privacy if he read, since that book contained all of his thoughts and writings. Did he really want to know what it contained?

'...I can't do it.' He thought to himself, laying the book down on his right side. It eventually found its way back into his hands, and he opened the front cover.

Five lines of song lyrics marked the title page of the journal, from a song by X-Japan called 'Crucify my Love'. He'd never heard of them before.

_**( Crucify my love... if my love is blind   
**__**Crucify my love... if it sets me free   
**__**Never know, never trust   
"**__**that love should see a color"   
**__**Crucify my love... if it should be that way )**_

He turned the next page.

"_My dad's never home when I really want him to be. I always used to run home from school in the hopes of Mom telling me he's on his way for dinner, but he never made it. He always left me in charge of the house, and me and Mom would eat dinner alone, without him. I'm mad at him – it's as if his work is more important than us, his family. I understand that he's a very important man, but please, just once... I want to spend time with him. But ha... come on... it might take years before he could take a day off for that. I'll just wait, I suppose. I think I can do that._

_I'm kinda a loner at school, you know... everyone else had these neat things that were popular and they always had friends to hang around with, go to movies, and stuff that normal people do for fun. One day, they had Tamagotchis, the next, new Nike shoes, and then more stuff would come out, and they'd have it. Most of them had allowances that allowed them to buy all that to stay on top of things... but I didn't. I couldn't really ask my parents to give me money... that'd make me sound greedy, and besides, they'd probably say something that'd convince me I didn't really need all that stuff. Well, that was before the PETs became really, really popular with everybody. Personal Exploration Terminals. _

_When I first saw one of the PETs, I nearly freaked. A program called a NetNavi was operated by the PETs' owner, and acted as an internet browser, battler and programmer, and a friend. You could talk to it, and it'd talk back to you. I really wanted one... I never thought I'd be able to get one for myself. But I did! Recalling it, it seemed I was pretty lucky. I must have been. Though the PET store I got it from was operated by World Three (I only found this out until much later), I'd received a PET. It was unfortunately in need of major repair, and inoperable._

_Mom wanted me to throw it out at first... she claimed the PET was broken and defective, since it was pretty battered when I got it. I normally listened to her, but then, I just didn't for some reason... It makes me think if I was psychic... if I'd listened to her, I'd never have met him – you know, Megaman._

_In total, there were three things that'd tried preventing me from meeting him: the battered PET, Mom, and the condition of him when I first activated the PET._

_But seriously...my life changed the day I woke up, met with a pair of sparkling green-emerald eyes. At first I thought those eyes would leave me... but here they are following me. You'd think something like this would creep me out but... it's made me stronger... and now I don't know what to do._

_I have to write this stuff down before I explode. My Navi Megaman just gave me this journal and I know it's for a good reason... does he know that I can express my feelings better on paper than I can using my voice? Well it seems that way anyway..."_

Megaman considered this. Maybe he'd guessed that's why he'd gotten Netto the journal... it was mainly to give him a place to write in without having him getting into trouble. Netto was a writer, so it made that much more sense.

_"Some things I just can't explain right. And others just come out really screwed up. But back to the subject here... the main subject."_

Megaman turned the page to come face to face with a simple sketch of himself sleeping against a bed, arms crossed and head down on his chest, a blanket draped over his shoulders.

_"I can't stop staring at him dozing off... so I figured, why not draw him and let my mind get off of him for once..._

_You see... he's... much more than just a NetNavi I operate. Some people don't get that, that NetNavis can be just as equal to us human beings. They've got our emotions, feelings... like our potential alter egos._

_Off the subject a moment... my mind's drifting so many places, that I want to write everything I'm thinking of down all at once."_

Megaman turned the page again, somewhere near towards the middle of the journal. A drawing of a knight was running up the hill towards a tall tower, and Netto was locked in it at the very top. It was just a scribble though. And no explanation in sight...

"_He keeps blaming himself for things he's not in control of. I know that he has a lot of problems that he wants to solve by himself, and I want to help him...but I just can't do that. He doesn't want me to._

_It nearly destroyed me to hear my knight in shining armor say and believe so strongly that he wasn't good enough. When he told me when we first met that he was a reject NetNavi... that hurt me so much, hearing him say it over time. It's not his fault; he'd been told that, and he believes it must be the truth. I forgot who he'd said told that to him... the Net-something or another..."_

**_( 'til the loneliness shadows the sky   
_****_I'll be sailing down, and I will know   
_**_**I'll know I can clear clouds away   
****Oh... is it a crime to love? )**_

_"How come everyone is against us? Even when we had just met... my mother wouldn't stand for it. Like she didn't want us to meet or get acquianted with each other. I don't understand, is love dangerous?!_

_I don't think my dad has found out. If he did, everything would be scrapped and over. Megaman wouldn't even exist anymore anywhere! Or else he'd be an escaped fugitive and I'd be a runaway. You see, my dad created NetNavis, and he's the one who set the boundaries. 'NetNavis are tools to get Cyber-World jobs and tasks done. They can also become friends to their Operators and to other Navis, as well as programs, but it is forbidden for the relationship between Operator and Navi to exceed that of their roles.' ...I'm not going to give up what I've got with Megaman. But I don't want to ever fight with my father... and I'm afraid that he'll break me and Megaman apart, and for good. We've been separated a lot of times before already. And... I don't want that pain to be caused by my father."_

The journal ended off with that, other random thoughts scribbled in on the remaining pages, referring to ex-friends Maylu and Yai and Dex. But he wasn't reading the journal to know about that; he would only look at the stuff that revolved around himself and his Operator...

"Netto-kun..." Megaman called softly. "_Oi,_ Netto-kun..." But the tired boy was sleeping soundly. Mega decided that he didn't really want him to wake up...

Closing the book, he got up from the carpeted floor. Climbing in the bed next to his Operator, Megaman clutched the journal close to himself. Closing his eyes, he too fell asleep, a smile across his face as if joining Netto in his dreams.

**>>>> next chapter!**


	21. before my eyes

_A/U: The best relationships always seem to break apart… they are too perfect, too good. Sometimes people do not want others to have happiness they need to survive._

**Net Nitro, Chapter 21; before my eyes**

Megaman woke up, staring towards the dresser. He could feel Netto still in bed with him, waking up from his sleep as well. It must have been around dusk time, since it was getting slightly dark, but from his angle he couldn't see the window to be exact.

"Talk about wasting the day away…" he said, sleep quickly fading away from his voice. Netto laughed softly, "You can say that again…" Megaman smiled. "Talk about wasting the day away..."

Netto laughed again, getting up and stretching, Megaman doing the same. Netto then pounced on the Navi unexpectedly, causing them both to fall off the bed since they were so close to the edge.

"Aaaaah! Netto-kun!" Megaman exclaimed, hitting his back hard against the carpeted floor. Both of them were laughing anyway. "So now you know." Netto said, quickly getting caught up in a tickle war. Megaman smiled up at him from where he was pinned under Netto. "Yeah, but you still haven't told me straightforward." the Navi said, grabbing a pillow to be used as a shield.

Netto stopped tickling all of a sudden, Megaman putting down the pillow. "Speaking of that… Mega, where'd you put the journal?" The Navi got up, looking around. It wasn't where he'd put it last. The expression on his face made Netto worry more each passing second… it wasn't in bed, underneath it, or by the side. It wasn't on the floor or in the dresser. Megaman looked up, shaking his head. "What do you mean it's not here…?" Netto whispered, he too having looked about for it.

"Lan! Get down here, I know you're up!" came a familiar voice from downstairs. Netto and Mega looked at each other. Dad was home.

'Oh no…' the Navi thought as he followed Netto out the door and down the stairs.

Netto's dad was standing at the bottom, holding up what they'd been looking for just a few seconds ago… the journal. His long index finger was in the middle of the book, and he had a very serious look on his face… it was too obvious. Netto's eyes widened in shock and fear, Megaman looking guilty at not putting the journal back in its rightful place under the pillow, but not breaking the look dad was giving him. Anger, disappointment. Even resentment was there…

"Lan. Tell me what this is right now." he demanded. Netto gulped loudly… "it's my journal." "I thought so." came the quick reply. Dad set the book down on the counter, where Megaman reached out and retrieved it, taking it under his arm securely.

"You do know that it is forbidden to have that kind of relationship with a NetNavi." he continued. Netto nodded, knowing he couldn't argue with his father in the first place. "I know that he means a lot to you, and I don't want to do this, but…"

There was a long silence… the kind that waited until Fate came along to give its decision…

"I'm going to have to delete Megaman now."

Slowly, it all seemed to stop. The clock on the wall kept ticking, but it seemed the world had left time behind.


	22. The Official

_A/U: dedicated to Hikari no Namida! XD_

**Net Nitro, Chapter 22; the Official**

There was a long silence... the kind that waited until Fate came along to give its decision.

"I'm going to have to delete Megaman now."

Slowly, it all seemed to stop. The clock on the wall kept ticking, but it seemed the world had left time behind.

Inside himself, Megaman was going over what he'd read in Netto's journal. He couldn't let him go up against his dad... not because of something like their relationship. It was his fault the journal had been discovered, so he should take the blame for it, but that wasn't the point. If he left, then Netto and his dad could maybe find time with each other. There shouldn't be any tension between the two family members, because it was Netto who'd said he didn't wish to fight with his father at all. He really looked up to his dad.

He was going to throw his life away for Netto, to save the father-and-son relationship. What else could he do? Stay with Netto, where he would practically be thrown out for not letting go of a corrupt netnavi?

'Just get it over with... delete me already. I want Netto to be happy with his parents, and if that means I have to go, then make it so.'

- - - - - - - - - - 

The words hit hard as Netto forced himself to fully believe his father. He didn't just hear that... his father, the one he loved and trusted… how could he want the death of another he loved?

Megaman looked at Netto longingly before nodding his head, putting the journal on the stairs before walking forward, accepting this order as if he had no choice. Because he had no choice. Either he go, or Netto would have to suffer. Knowing the strong bond the boy had with his dad, Megaman took that to heart... if he didn't go through with this, his father would look at him with disappointment.

Wanting to keep that smile on Netto's face, he walked forward, ready to take his punishment for his mistake. It was his fault the journal had been found.

'This is okay. At least... at least, this way, I'll leave knowing Netto-kun understands I love him.'

"No!" Netto reached out and grabbed Megaman's arm, but the Navi pulled away, making him flinch.

"Stop Netto-kun… you know this is the only solution we have now."

Netto watched, believing he was right, as Megaman sat in a chair in front of his dad, who was holding the PET in his hands. He must have taken it from upstairs… who knows when or how without either of them noticing. He forced himself to watch… though he knew the memories would create nightmares. His dad started to enter in some type of coding into the PET, and he heard him explain what it would do. Something like… it would disable Megaman so he couldn't fight against it, and would delete him from the inside out, erasing all his functions.

"You say that this is the only way you can save me… but that's not true, is it? There has to be another way!" Netto shook his head violently, trying to realize just what was happening before him. If Megaman was deleted, then he couldn't come back. Megaman shook his head to the side. "Netto-kun… let him do it…"

Netto knew that he was ready and willing to go through with the deletion… it had been obvious ever since the moment he'd set the journal back down on the stairs. '_Why, Mega…? Why are you doing this? Fight it! But… why aren't I fighting? You've fought for me all along… you've made all these sacrifices, and I haven't done much for you…'_

It was obvious the Navi knew Netto was going to do something, as to what, he didn't know. But he didn't say anything. It would be over before he could make his dad stop… and he hoped nothing would happen to put it off any longer. But silently… he knew this wasn't what he wanted either…

Netto grabbed the knife from the table, which was planned to be used to cut dinner – it smelled like roast beef coming from the oven – only now, it had another use. "Stop it dad! If you kill him, I'll have to go with him…!" Megaman's eyes widened in shock and panic. "No Netto-kun stop!"

Dad made a move to snatch the blade from Netto's hand, but he'd dodged out of the way with a serious look on his face. "I mean it!" He positioned it right over his heart, making the tip of it press lightly against his shirt. Megaman's eyes were moving in and out of focus… the deletion process nearly halfway done. There was no way… no time left.

"Don't do it… Netto-kun… I love you."

The blade nearly fell out from his grip to land on the floor, but he managed to maintain his grasp on the handle. "Megaman!" 'I love you…'

"_I love you!_"

The moment the words were spoken, the lights went out and the entire kitchen went dark! Dad was completely blind at the moment, his eyes not accustomed to the change, and he dropped the PET searching for something to feel where he was. Netto saw the front door open and saw someone come in, grab Megaman, and send him a gesture like 'let's get the heck out of here'. Netto dove under dad and grabbed his PET before dashing out the door, where a black car was waiting for them.

In the moonlight, he saw who had helped him out. Some teenager perhaps slightly older than him, wearing a red vest but mostly black if not for his camouflage pants. He had a red PET attached to his belt, but he couldn't see the NetNavi at all from his position. Other than that, he had no idea who this guy was… and he didn't want to trust him, but for now, anywhere was better than here.

The car sped down the road, turning a corner right before Yuuchirou opened the door and shouted at them. Turning around to look through the back window, Netto caught a glimpse of him trying to find where he'd escaped. He hoped he wouldn't send out the police… or the national guard… or the army… or all three at once…

…or better yet, he could just send out a horde of dogs.

Netto was startled out of his thoughts of what his dad would do by someone grabbing the PET out of his hands. It was Megaman, who obviously was blind, and losing his voice to the code input. "Mega!" Netto exclaimed. The teen leaned over from where he sat in the passenger's seat and snatching the PET away typed something in, pointing the device at Megaman while doing it. That seemed to help, for he slumped back in his seat, able to relax for a moment or two. The PET was handed back to Netto after a second. "Just keep an eye on him for now."

Netto blinked. Huh? "Who are you…?" It was obvious this was no ordinary guy if he'd been able to override his dad's programming. When he opened the door to let Netto out, he got his answer.

"Official NetBattler, Enzan Ijuiin. Netto 'Lan' Hikari, both you and your Navi are under arrest."

- - - - - - - - - -

Netto could only pace the floor frustrated, worried, and scared. Here he was, locked in a room in a house he didn't know, his hands handcuffed together, a recovering Megaman lying on the bed, all because he'd been saved by someone who he didn't know was an Official.

This was the worst possible situation he could have ever gotten into. Right now, he hated himself at not thinking first before jumping into that car. He was so plagued with despair that he couldn't think of anything at all. There wasn't any hope. This was the end, now that he'd been caught, the NetBattlers were most likely going to kill him. Or severely punish him. Better yet, throw him in jail for 15 or 20 years. Look at everything he'd done…

"Netto-kun?" a voice called from by the bed. Megaman was sitting up, looking around at his surroundings. Netto barely seemed to acknowledge him as he kept pacing, an angry expression of despair on his face. "Where are we?"

"We've been caught."

Megaman blinked. "What?"

Netto stopped pacing. Standing still where he was, his whole body started trembling. This was wrong… something was very, very wrong. And he didn't know what.

"…the Officials caught us… and it's all my fault!"

Megaman rushed over to his Operator as Netto crumpled to the floor, crying. Holding him tightly he let him sob against his chest, and he never let go.

A flash of red had appeared on the monitor in the corner, but had disappeared just as quickly as it'd came. As if, someone had been observing them…

_...continued?_


End file.
